with her eyes shining and full of tears;
and in that look there was so much attachment, so much distress, that
Caesar felt a weakness in his whole frame. Then, taking Amparito's head
between his hands, he kissed it several times.

She leaned her head on Caesar's shoulder and stood pressed against him,
sobbing. Caesar felt a sensation of anguish and pain, as if within the
depths of his soul, the strongest part of his personality had broken and
melted.

They heard the footsteps of the old woman, coming back to say that she
had found nothing in the room Laura had occupied during her stay.

Amparito dried her tears, and smiled, and her face was redder than
usual. Presently she said to the nurse:

"Probably you didn't look well. I am going to go myself."

Amparito went out.

Caesar was pale and absorbed; he felt that something extraordinary
had happened to him. His hands trembled and things swam around him.

In a short while Amparito returned. She had a round glass box in her
hand, which she said she had found in Laura's room.

"This afternoon I am going to Our Lady of the Rock," said Amparito.
"Will you come, Caesar?"

"Yes."

"Then, good-bye till then."

Amparito gave him her hand, and Caesar kissed it. The old servant was
dumfounded. Amparito burst out laughing.

"He is my beau. Hadn't you noticed it before?"

"No," said the old woman with a gesture of violent negation.

Amparito laughed again and disappeared.

The first days of his engagement Caesar was constantly in-tranquil and
uneasy. He kept thinking that it was impossible to live like that,
giving his whole attention to nothing except the desires of a girl. He
imagined that the awakening would come from one moment to the next; but
the awakening didn't arrive.

By degrees Caesar abandoned all the affairs of the district, which had
taken all his attention, and took to occupying himself solely with his
sweetheart. The whole town knew their relations and talked of the coming
wedding.

That dazzling idyll intrigued all the girls in Castro. The truth was
that none of them had considered Caesar a marrying man; some had
imagined him already old; others an experienced and vicious bachelor,
incapable of yielding to the matrimonial yoke; and now they saw him a
youth, of distinguished type, with distinguished manners and looks.

Caesar went almost daily to Amparito's father's country-place. It was
a magnificent estate, another ancient property of the Duke