Antonia to-night?"

"Si! She is a blessing to the eyesight. So brave a young girl, so sweet,
so wise; she is a miracle! If I loved not Isabel with my whole soul, I
would kneel at Antonia's feet."

"That is where I also would kneel."

"Hark! how the wind roars, and how the rain thrashes the house! But our
men have the shelter of one of the Panchos. You should have heard the
padre threaten them with the anger of heaven and hell and General Cos.
Good-bye, Lopez. I have stayed my last moment now."

"Your horse has been well fed. Listen, he is neighing for you; to Doctor
Worth give my honorable regards. Is Senor Parades with you? and Perez
Mexia? Say to them I keep the vow I made in their behalf. Farewell,
Luis!" and Luis, who had been mounting as his friend talked, stooped
from his saddle and kissed him.

It was just dawn when he reached camp, and he found Doctor Worth waiting
his arrival. Fortunately there was nothing but good news for the doctor.
Luis had seen everything through the medium of his own happiness, and he
described the midnight meal and the Senora's amiability with the utmost
freedom from anything unpleasant. Rachela's interference he treated with
scornful indifference; and yet it affected Worth's mind unpleasantly.
For it went straight to the source of offence. "She must have had Fray
Ignatius behind her. And my poor Maria, she will be as dough for them to
knead as they desire to!"

And, in fact, as he was thus thinking, the Senora was lying awake in her
bed, anticipating her confessor's next visit. She was almost glad the
norther was still blowing. It would give her another day's respite; and
"so many things happen as the clock goes round," she reflected. Perhaps
even her Roberto might arrive; it would not be more wonderful than the
visit of Luis Alveda.

But very early in the day she saw the father hurrying up the oleander
avenue. The wind tossed his gown, and blew his hat backward and
sideways, and compelled him to make undignified haste. And such little
things affect the mental poise and mood! The Senora smiled at the funny
figure he made; and with the smile came a feeling of resistance to his
tyranny, and a stubborn determination to defend her own conduct.

He came into her room with a doleful countenance, saying, as he crossed
himself, "God be here!"

"And with you, father," answered the Senora, cheerfully--a mood she had
assumed at the last moment, by a kind of instinct.

"There is evil n