balustrade of the azotea, she
gazed toward the river.

A small banka loaded with zacate stopped at the foot of the landing
such as every house on the bank of the river has. One of two men who
were in it ran up the stone stairway and jumped over the wall, and a
few seconds later his footsteps were heard on the stairs leading to
the azotea.

Maria Clara saw him pause on discovering her, but only for a
moment. Then he advanced slowly and stopped within a few paces of
her. Maria Clara recoiled.

"Crisostomo!" she murmured, overcome with fright.

"Yes, I am Crisostomo," replied the young man gravely. "An enemy,
a man who has every reason for hating me, Elias, has rescued me from
the prison into which my friends threw me."

A sad silence followed these words. Maria Clara bowed her head and
let her arms fall.

Ibarra went on: "Beside my mother's corpse I swore that I would make
you happy, whatever might be my destiny! You can have been faithless
to your oath, for she was not your mother; but I, I who am her son,
hold her memory so sacred that in spite of a thousand difficulties I
have come here to carry mine out, and fate has willed that I should
speak to you yourself. Maria, we shall never see each other again--you
are young and perhaps some day your conscience may reproach you--I have
come to tell you, before I go away forever, that I forgive you. Now,
may you be happy and--farewell!"

Ibarra started to move away, but the girl stopped him.

"Crisostomo," she said, "God has sent you to save me from
desperation. Hear me and then judge me!"

Ibarra tried gently to draw away from her. "I didn't come to call
you to account! I came to give you peace!"

"I don't want that peace which you bring me. Peace I will give
myself. You despise me and your contempt will embitter all the rest
of my life."

Ibarra read the despair and sorrow depicted in the suffering girl's
face and asked her what she wished.

"That you believe that I have always loved you!"

At this he smiled bitterly.

"Ah, you doubt me! You doubt the friend of your childhood, who
has never hidden a single thought from you!" the maiden exclaimed
sorrowfully. "I understand now! But when you hear my story, the sad
story that was revealed to me during my illness, you will have mercy
on me, you will not have that smile for my sorrow. Why did you not
let me die in the hands of my ignorant physician? You and I both
would have been happier!"

Resting a moment,