She endeavored to speak in a brisk, business-like tone.  “La Feria belongs to me, personally, and I have managed it for several years, just as I manage Las Palmas, across the river.  I am a woman of affairs, General Longorio, and you must talk to me as you would talk to a man.  When I heard about this raid I came to look into it—­to see you, or whoever is in charge of this district, and to make a claim for damages.  Also, I intend to see that nothing similar occurs again.  I have delayed making representations to my own government in the hope that I could arrange a satisfactory settlement, and so avoid serious complications.  Now you understand why I am here and why I wished to see you.”

“Valgame Dios!  This is amazing.  I become more bewildered momentarily.”

“There is nothing extraordinary about it, that I can see.”

“You think not?  You consider such a woman as yourself ordinary?  The men of my country enshrine beauty and worship it.  They place it apart as a precious gift from God which nothing shall defile.  They do not discuss such things with their women.  Now this sordid affair is something for your husband—­”

“Mr. Austin’s business occupies his time; this is my own concern.  I am not the only practical woman in Texas.”

Longorio appeared to be laboriously digesting this statement.  “So!” he said at last.  “When you heard of this—­you came, eh?  You came alone into Mexico, where we are fighting and killing each other?  Well!  That is spirit.  You are wonderful, superb!” He smiled, showing the whitest and evenest teeth.

Such extravagant homage was embarrassing, yet no woman could be wholly displeased by admiration so spontaneous and intense as that which Longorio manifested in every look and word.  It was plain to Alaire that something about her had completely bowled him over; perhaps it was her strange red hair and her white foreign face, or perhaps something deeper, something behind all that.  Sex phenomena are strange and varied in their workings.  Who can explain the instant attraction or repulsion of certain types we meet?  Why does the turn of a head, a smile, a glance, move us to the depths?  Why does the touch of one stranger’s hand thrill us, while another’s leaves us quite impassive?  Whence springs that personal magnetism which has the power to set the very atoms of our being into new vibrations, like a highly charged electric current?

Alaire knew the susceptibility of Mexican men, and was immune to ordinary flattery; yet there was something exciting about this martial hero’s complete captivation.  To have charmed him to the point of bewilderment was a unique triumph, and under his hungry eyes she felt an adventurous thrill.