the lady's attention,
had she not at the last moment recognized me as the buckskin
_caballero_.

With a glance of frank pleasure which came near to finishing me on the
spot, she signed gracefully to her uncle: "_Santa Maria!_ It is he--the
_caballero_ who so kindly came to our assistance!"

"I have already expressed to the senor the full measure of our gratitude
for his service," replied Don Pedro, in a tone which recalled the girl
to her first manner of polite hauteur.

"Permit me to join my thanks to those of my kinsman," she said to me.

Nettled by the condescension of her tone and bearing, I shook off my
daze, and rejoined with more wit than courtesy, "Believe me, senorita,
no thanks are due me other than from your coach horses."

Another chorus of questions demanded the explanation, and Colonel Burr
responded by telling over Don Pedro's account in the form of a wittily
brilliant anecdote. I listened unheeding, for my gaze was fixed upon
Senorita Alisanda.

At my rude reply her eyes had flashed with a look before which my own
dropped,--though not to the floor. As she drew back a step in her
displeasure, my gaze dwelt adoringly upon the graces of her lissome
form. She was tall, yet not unduly slender, and the queenly dignity and
beauty of her presence were enhanced by the flowing lines of her dress.

Of the dress itself I can only say that it was of scarlet sarsenet,
covered in part by an overdrape of silver spangles on white _crepe_,
and, in compliance with the Empire mode, cut low enough in the waist to
expose her dazzling shoulders and bosom. Her arms, rounding up from the
small hands and slender wrists as if carved from new ivory, were bare to
the bows of black ribbon on her shoulders. Close about her perfect
throat, in place of the usual ruffs, was a double string of black
pearls. Notwithstanding the universal acceptance of the new fashions, I
had great pleasure in the fact that she had not sacrificed her beautiful
hair for a wig.

But, needless to say, I gave slight heed to her dress. My fascinated
eyes dropped their gaze to the little arched foot which peeped from
beneath the raised front of her dress, snugly cased in its
diamond-buckled slipper of scarlet satin. The foot drew back out of
view, and I looked up in time to catch a faint tinge of pink beneath the
clear ivory of my lady's cheeks. Her look was, if possible, more haughty
than before. Yet, emboldened by that faint blush and the intoxication