round her. She gazed wide-eyed
and unblinkingly straight at the sun.

Still wandering about here and there, crying and wailing, she would
have frightened any listener, for her voice now uttered rare notes such
as are not often produced in the human throat. In a night of roaring
tempest, when the whirling winds beat with invisible wings against
the crowding shadows that ride upon it, if you should find yourself
in a solitary and ruined building, you would hear moans and sighs
which you might suppose to be the soughing of the wind as it beats
on the high towers and moldering walls to fill you with terror and
make you shudder in spite of yourself; as mournful as those unknown
sounds of the dark night when the tempest roars were the accents of
that mother. In this condition night came upon her. Perhaps Heaven
had granted some hours of sleep while the invisible wing of an angel,
brushing over her pallid countenance, might wipe out the sorrows
from her memory; perhaps such suffering was too great for weak human
endurance, and Providence had intervened with its sweet remedy,
forgetfulness. However that may be, the next day Sisa wandered about
smiling, singing, and talking with all the creatures of wood and field.

CHAPTER XXII

Lights and Shadows

Three days have passed since the events narrated, three days which
the town of San Diego has devoted to making preparations for the
fiesta, commenting and murmuring at the same time. While all were
enjoying the prospect of the pleasures to come, some spoke ill of the
gobernadorcillo, others of the teniente-mayor, others of the young men,
and there were not lacking those who blamed everybody for everything.

There was a great deal of comment on the arrival of Maria Clara,
accompanied by her Aunt Isabel. All rejoiced over it because they loved
her and admired her beauty, while at the same time they wondered at the
change that had come over Padre Salvi. "He often becomes inattentive
during the holy services, nor does he talk much with us, and he is
thinner and more taciturn than usual," commented his penitents. The
cook noticed him getting thinner and thinner by minutes and complained
of the little honor that was done to his dishes. But that which caused
the most comment among the people was the fact that in the convento
were to be seen more than two lights burning during the evening while
Padre Salvi was on a visit to a private dwelling--the home of Maria
Clara! The pious