nounced indiscretion.

"Don't mind them," he whispered; "you really cannot expect to duena
your elder sister. Tell me, would you actually like me to see if I
could assist the virtuous tramp? You have only to speak." But Amita's
interest appeared to be so completely appeased with Raymond's simple
offer that she only smiled, blushed, and said "No."

Maruja's quick ears had taken in every word of these asides, and for an
instant she hated her sister for her aimless declination of Raymond's
proposal. But becoming conscious--under her eyelids--that the stranger
was moving away with the dispersing crowd, she rejoined Amita with her
usual manner. The others had re-entered the carriage, but Maruja took
it into her head to proceed on foot to the rude building whence the
mourners had issued. The foreman, Harrison, flushed and startled by
this apparition of inaccessible beauty at his threshold, came eagerly
forward. "I shall not trouble you now, Mr. Har-r-r-rison," she said,
with a polite exaggeration of the consonants; "but some day I shall
ride over here, and ask you to show me your wonderful machines."

She smiled, and turned back to seek her carriage. But before she had
gone many yards she found that she had completely lost it in the
intervening billows of grain. She stopped, with an impatient little
Spanish ejaculation. The next moment the stalks of wheat parted before
her and a figure emerged. It was the stranger.

She fell back a step in utter helplessness.

He, on his side, retreated again into the wheat, holding it back with
extended arms to let her pass. As she moved forward mechanically,
without a word he moved backward, making a path for her until she was
able to discern the coachman's whip above the bending heads of the
grain just beyond her. He stopped here and drew to one side, his arms
still extended, to give her free passage. She tried to speak, but
could only bow her head, and slipped by him with a strange
feeling--suggested by his attitude--that she was evading his embrace.
But the next moment his arms were lowered, the grain closed around him,
and he was lost to her view. She reached the carriage almost
unperceived by the inmates, and pounced upon her sister with a laugh.

"Blessed Virgin!" said Amita, "where did you come from?"

"From there!" said Maruja, with a slight nervous shiver, pointing to
the clustering grain.

"We were afraid you were lost."

"So was I," said Maruja, raising h