s. And yet she was profoundly unhappy.
He was accustomed to see her seated on a rock, as if brooding over some
secret grief, her head bowed, and great tears falling from half-closed
eyes.

From the first he had conceived the idea that she was in the way of
becoming a mother at no distant date--an idea which seemed to accord
badly with the suppositions as to the nature of this heavenly being
he was privileged to minister to and so win salvation; but he was now
convinced of its truth, and he imagined that in her condition he had
discovered the cause of that sorrow and anxiety which preyed continually
on her. By means of that dumb language of signs which enabled them to
converse together a little, he made it known to her that at a great
distance from the mountains there existed a place where there were
beings like herself, women, and mothers of children, who would comfort
and tenderly care for her. When she had understood, she seemed pleased
and willing to accompany him to that distant place; and so it came to
pass that they left their rocky shelter and the mountains of Riolama far
behind. But for several days, as they slowly journeyed over the plain,
she would pause at intervals in her limping walk to gaze back on those
blue summits, shedding abundant tears.

Fortunately the village Voa, on the river of the same name, which was
the nearest Christian settlement to Riolama, whither his course was
directed, was well known to him; he had lived there in former years,
and, what was of great advantage, the inhabitants were ignorant of
his worst crimes, or, to put it in his own subtle way, of the crimes
committed by the men he had acted with. Great was the astonishment and
curiosity of the people of Voa when, after many weeks' travelling, Nuflo
arrived at last with his companion. But he was not going to tell the
truth, nor even the least particle of the truth, to a gaping crowd of
inferior persons. For these, ingenious lies; only to the priest he told
the whole story, dwelling minutely on all he had done to rescue and
protect her; all of which was approved by the holy man, whose first act
was to baptize the woman for fear that she was not a Christian. Let it
be said to Nuflo's credit that he objected to this ceremony, arguing
that she could not be a saint, with an aureole in token of her
sainthood, yet stand in need of being baptized by a priest. A priest--he
added, with a little chuckle of malicious pleasure--who was often seen