ld flow wildly, and
she would draw him into the frolics which had yielded her such
extravagant joy in former days; but that the growth of knowledge and
the rapid development of her thought had seemed to bring to her a
deepening sense of responsibility, a growing impression of maturity,
and an increasing regard for the meaning of life and her part in
it. She had ceased to insist that she would never leave Simiti. And
Jose often thought of late, as he watched her, that he detected
signs of irksomeness at the limitations which her environment
imposed upon her. But, if so, these were never openly expressed; nor
did her manner ever change toward her foster-parents, or toward the
simple and uncomprehending folk of her native town.

From the first, Jose had constituted himself her teacher, guide, and
protector. And she had joyously accepted him. His soured and
rebellious nature had been no barrier to her great love, which had
twined about his heart like ivy around a crumbling tower. And his love
for the child had swelled like a torrent, fed hourly by countless
uncharted streams. He had watched over her like a father; he had
rejoiced to see her bloom into a beauty as rich and luxuriant as the
tropical foliage; he had gazed for hours into the unsearchable abyss
of her black eyes and read there, in ecstasy, a wondrous response to
his love; and when, but a few short days ago, she had again intimated
a future union, a union upon which, even as a child, she had insisted,
yet one which he knew--had always known--utterly, extravagantly
impossible--he had, nevertheless, seized upon the thought with a joy
that was passionate, desperate--and had then flung it from him with a
cry of agony. It was not the disparity of ages; it was not the girl's
present immaturity. In less than a year she would have attained the
marriageable age of these Latin countries. But he could wait two,
three, aye, ten years for such a divine gift! No; the shadow which lay
upon his life was cast by the huge presence of the master whose chains
he wore, the iron links of which, galling his soul, he knew to be
unbreakable. And, as he sat in the gloom of the decayed old church
where he was now a prisoner, the thought that his situation but
symbolized an imprisonment in bonds eternal roused him to a
half-frenzied resolve to destroy himself.

"Padre dear," the girl had whispered to him that night, just before
the American came again with his disquieting report, "Love wi