family love and family joy.
It would be good to have the memory of them in the days that were fast
coming. So they sat long over the sweetmeats, and fresh figs, and
the pale wines of Xeres and Alicante. And they rose up with laughter,
looking into each others' faces with eyes that seemed to bespeak love
and remembrance. And then they went from the table, and saw not Destiny
standing cold and pitiless behind them, marking two places for evermore
vacant.

There was not much siesta that day. The Senora, Isabel and Jack
sat together; the Senora dozed a little, but not enough to lose
consciousness of Jack's presence and Jack's voice. The father, happy,
and yet acutely anxious, went to and fro between his children and his
study. Antonia and Dare were in the myrtle walk or under the fig-tree.
This hour was the blossoming time of their lives. And it was not the
less sweet and tender because of the dark shadows on the edge of the
sunshine. Nor were they afraid to face the shadows, to inquire of them,
and thus to taste the deeper rapture of love when love is gemmed with
tears.

It was understood that the young men were going away in the morning very
early; so early that their adieus must be said with their good-nights.
It was at this hour that the Senora found courage to ask:

"My Juan, where do you go?

"To Gonzales, mi madre."

"But why? Oh, Juan, do not desert your madre, and your country!

"Desert you, madre! I am your boy to my last breath! My country I love
with my whole soul. That is why I have come back to you and to her! She
is in trouble and her sons must stand by her."

"Do not talk with two meanings. Oh, Juan! why do you go to Gonzales?"

"We have heard that Colonel Ugartchea is to be there soon, and to
take away the arms of the Americans. That is not to be endured. If you
yourself were a man, you would have been away ere this to help them, I
am sure."

"ME!! The Blessed Virgin knows I would cut off my hands and feet first.
Juan, listen to me dear one! You are a Mexican."

"My heart is Mexican, for it is yours. But I must stand with my father
and with my brother, and with my American compatriots. Are we slaves,
that we must give up our arms? No, but if we gave them up we should
deserve to be slaves."

"God and the saints!" she answered, passionately. "What a trouble about
a few guns! One would think the Mexicans wanted the wives and children,
the homes and lands of the Americans. They cry out from one en