Mae sprang up. "No," she said, gently,
"no, my friend, for you have always been kind and friendly to me. Pray
go." Bero was touched by this. This little girl had taken only good from
him, after all, sympathy and friendliness. Norman was touched also with
the same thought. Then the officer smiled pleasantly. He shrugged his
shoulders slightly, regretfully, and bowed and rode away. And so the
clinking spurs and yellow moustaches and amorous eyes vanished from
Mae's sight.
As he rode off he was somewhat sorrowful; but he took a picture from his
pocket and looked at it. "She'll be glad to welcome me back again,"
he said to himself, pleasantly, "and she belongs to my own land. This
little foreigner might have pined for her own home, by and by." Then he
sighed and shook his head. "Alas! this little stranger will dance before
you often, still!" and he touched his eyes; "but I will put you back
in your place here, now." This he said, looking at Lillia's picture and
with his hand on his heart.
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