"Yes, Euetzin, more happy than I can tell," was her reply; still, her actions did not warrant it. The thought that she must part from him at this time pressed heavily upon her heart, and when she had spoken, she dropped her head upon the hand which she was holding; as she did so, a tear trickled down over her cheek and fell upon it.
"Why, Mitla!" exclaimed the tzin, anxiously, "you are in tears! What has disturbed you?"
"They are tears of joy, Euetzin, mingled with sadness--sadness that I am about to leave you, and you so ill. I would remain to nurse you back to health, but you have advised, wisely, no doubt, that I should go; and I feel restrained, against inclination, to do so, that my people may no longer mourn for me as lost."
"Yes, Mitla, it will be better so. I will soon be well--thanks to you--and back in Tezcuco, where you shall early join me, to go away no more; then our happiness will be complete. You must be brave; it were not like Hualla to weep," spoke the tzin, persuasively.
"I will weep no more, Euetzin; you shall see that she whom you love is brave, even as Hualla," she replied, wiping away her tears.
Euetzin realized that the time was close at hand when the escort would come to take his loved Mitla from him, and drawing her to him, he said:
"Your unbounded love, which saved and brought me where I am, is worth more than all else in the world to me; and my life's best effort shall be to make you happy. Go from me with this assurance, and think only of the joy our reunion will bring."
The lover's parting kiss was exchanged, and Mitla disengaged herself from the tzin's embrace--none too soon either; for just then Cacami entered to say that the palanquin awaited her occupancy. A few minutes later she had taken her seat in the chair, and the little procession moved away.
Under Cacami's careful direction Mitla was transported in comfort and safety back to her mountain home. Her arrival there was the return of a loved one given up as lost. The meeting was very affecting, filled as it was with a terrible struggle between love and joy, and a feeling of injured confidence and resentment for the mastery in the hearts of the aggrieved parents. Cacami, fearful that harsh treatment might be in store for the offending daughter, pleaded her cause with earnestness and eloquence: