'
Now Marina flushed beneath her brown skin, and for the first and last
time I saw her gentle eyes grow hard with anger as she answered:
'I asked you to take me with you, prince; I did not ask to be your wife
or love.'
'But perchance you meant it,' he said dryly.
'Whatever I may have meant, prince, it is now forgotten. I wished to see
the great city and the great king, because I weary of my life here and
would myself grow great. You have refused me, but perhaps a time will
come when I shall grow great in spite of you, and then I may remember
the shame that has been put upon me against you, prince, and all your
royal house.'
Again Guatemoc laughed, then of a sudden grew stern.
'You are over-bold, girl,' he said; 'for less words than these many a
one might find herself stretched upon the stone of sacrifice. But I will
forget them, for your woman's pride is stung, and you know not what you
say. Do you forget them also, Teule, if you have understood.'
Then Marina turned and went, her bosom heaving with anger and outraged
love or pride, and as she passed me I heard her mutter, 'Yes, prince,
you may forget, but I shall not.'
Often since that day I have wondered if some vision of the future
entered into the girl's breast in that hour, or if in her wrath she
spoke at random. I have wondered also whether this scene between her and
Guatemoc had anything to do with the history of her after life; or did
Marina, as she avowed to me in days to come, bring shame and ruin on
her country for the love of Cortes alone? It is hard to say, and perhaps
these things had nothing to do with what followed, for when great events
have happened, we are apt to search out causes for them in the past that
were no cause.
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