-he found no
words to describe or explain her. She must be seen. The Church had
need of prompt action, however, to secure her. To that end, he advised
her immediate removal to Cartagena.

Again Wenceslas deliberated. Aside from the girl, to whom he found his
thought reverting oftener than he could wish in that particular hour
of stress, his interest in Simiti did not extend beyond its
possibilities as a further contributor to the funds he was so greatly
needing for the furtherance of his complex political plans. As to the
Alcalde--here was a possibility of another sort. That fellow might
become useful. He should be cultivated. And at the same time warned
against precipitate action, lest he scatter Rosendo's family into
flight, and the graceful bird now dwelling in the rude nest escape the
sharp talons awaiting her.

He called for his secretary. "Send a message to Francisco, our Legate,
who is now in Bogota. Bid him on his return journey stop again at
Simiti. We require a full report on the character of the Alcalde of
that town."

* * * * *

Meantime, Jose did not permit his mental torture to interfere
with Carmen's education. For six years now that had progressed
steadily. And the results? Wonderful, he thought--and yet not
wholly attributable to his peculiar mode of tutelage. For, after
all, his work had been little more than the holding of her mind
unwarped, that her instinctive sense of logic might reach those
truthful conclusions which it was bound to attain if guided safely
past the tortuous shifts of human speculation and undemonstrable
theory. To his great joy, these six years had confirmed a belief
which he had held ever since the troublous days of his youth,
namely, that, as a recent writer has said, "adolescent understanding
is along straight lines, and leaps where the adult can only
laboriously creep." There had been no awful hold of early teaching
to loosen and throw off; there were no old landmarks in her mind
to remove; no tenacious, clinging effect of early associations to
neutralize. And, perhaps most important of all, the child had seemed
to enter the world utterly devoid of fear, and with a congenital
faith, amounting to absolute knowledge, in the immanence of an
omnipotent God of love. This, added to her eagerness and mental
receptivity, had made his task one of constant rejoicing in the
realization of his most extravagant dreams for her.

As a linguis