Under cover of one of the Indian dances with which, from time to time,
the feast was enlivened, he leaned impulsively toward her.

"Can'st speak the Spanish tongue?" he hastily inquired.

The princess dropped her eyes. For a moment she remained silent as if
debating to what extent such boldness might involve her. Then, with a
glance as shy as if some deer gazed at him startled from the thicket,

"Yes, mon senor," she answered simply. "I learned it when Don Cabrillo
came to Punagwandah many moons ago."

After that it was only that one thing led to another, as was sometimes
true of men and maidens even in the days so long gone by. For, as if by
common consent, then, they drew a little apart from the rest, where,
throwing himself on the sand beside her while the firelight threw
flickering shadows among the rocks, the young man related fragments of
his story, - of the long journey across the sea, something of his home
in England, and of the brilliant court of the great queen wherein he had
served as gentleman-in-waiting. So had he served, yet soon, but here her
guest had suddenly flushed and paused as though he spoke too hastily or
of what he should not. To all of it the princess listened with
fast-beating heart and a desire, ever growing, to make herself a place
in this splendid stranger's world. Was not she then, also, the daughter
of a king? Yet how different and how unimportant beside that wonderful
woman of whom he spoke! For father she boasted the great chief Torquam,
feared by every tribe in the north and rich because of the gold hidden
in many a canyon among the distant mountains; yet her woman's instinct
told her that to this proud Englishman her people were at best little
more than a curiosity, almost, indeed, a cause for laughter.