"But I will not have it, understand! You
are betrothed. You have given your word to Ramon."
"Ah, but I never loved him. You compelled me to consent, because
you said you could not be President unless I married him. And that
was not so. Ramon deceived you. Now it is all right. You will be
President, and I can be happy."
Ramon's suspicion kindled on the instant. He turned upon the
banker. "So! I begin to see! That was a trick, then, to betray my
father."
"But wait!" Gertrudis exclaimed, sharply. "Did you not trick us
also? Did you not use the General, your father, to make me give up
the man I love? Which of us, then, is the better?"
Andres Garavel spoke threateningly, menacingly, to his daughter.
"Enough! Our word was given, and you have broken it! You have
brought disgrace to our name. Can a Garavel be President of the
Republic with his daughter wed to a murderer?"
"He is not that!"
"It was no marriage, and it will not stand. I will have it
annulled. Such things are easily done, Ramon. She is no wife. The
man was a criminal, a fugitive, even when he forced her to marry--"
"No, no! You cannot do that. It was I who asked him to marry me."
The girl lied tremulously, panic-stricken at the threat. "Before
God, I am his wife!" she maintained.
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