ll I be then? Ah, where? Fain would I rest, and fain
depart. Tita! sling my hammock. Senors, you will excuse age and
infirmities. Fray Gerundio, go to bed!"

And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,--

"Farewell! Life is short. Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last. And there
are really no more pearls?"

"Not a frail; nor gold either," said the intendant.

"Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than--Tita!"

"My breviary--ah! Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped--You have
seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?"

"No."

"Ah! she promised:--but no matter--a little trifle as a keepsake--a gold
cross, or an emerald ring, or what not--I forget. And what have I to do
with worldly wealth!--Ah! Tita! bring me the casket."

And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers out of
his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the dull greedy
eyes of covetous old age.

"Ah!--it may buy the red hat yet!--Omnia Romae venalia! Put it by, Tita,
and do not look at it too much, child. Enter not into temptation. The
love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven, in love for the
Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he may be rich in faith.
Ah!--Ugh!--So!"

And the old miser clambered into his hammock. Tita drew the mosquito
net over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept, or seemed to
sleep; for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and master and slave
soon snored a merry bass to the treble of the mosquitoes.

It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, who had
tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their officers were
sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays of the planet to
seek that health and peace which they considered their right, and slept
as soundly as the bishop's self.

Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the Morro
Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern of the
galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering surface of the
water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel been looking out, he
could only have descried them by the phosphorescent flashes along their
sides.

Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the wine
was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, and his
heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his hammock, looked
out upon the bay, and called Tita.

"Put another