ine clothing for himself; but then
for the handsome, elegant, Mexican youth it seemed precisely the
right thing. And Isabel, in her scarlet satin petticoat, and white
embroideries and satin slippers, looked his proper mate. Dare and
Antonia, and even the doctor, watched their almost childlike devotion to
each other with sympathetic delight.

Oh, if such moments could only last! No, no; as a rule they last long
enough. Joy wearies as well as sorrow. An abiding rapture would make
itself a sorrow out of our very weakness to bear it. We should become
exhausted and exacting, and be irritated by the limitations of our
nature, and our inability to create and to endure an increasing rapture.
It is because joy is fugitive that it leaves us a delightsome memory.
It is far better, then, not to hold the rose until it withers in our
fevered hand.

The three women watched their heroes go back to the city. The doctor
looked very little older than his companions. He sat his horse superbly,
and he lifted his hat to the proud Senora with a loving grace which
neither of the young men could excel. In that far back year, when he had
wooed her with the sweet words she taught him, he had not looked more
manly and attractive. There is a perverse disposition in women to love
personal prowess, and to adore the heroes of the battle-field; and never
had the Senora loved her husband as she did at that hour.

In his capacity of physician he had done unnoticed deeds of far
greater bravery--gone into a Comanche camp that was being devastated
by smallpox--or galloped fifty miles; alone in the night, through woods
haunted by savage men and beasts, to succor some little child struggling
with croup, or some frontiersman pierced with an arrow. The Senora had
always fretted and scolded a little when he thus exposed his life. But
the storming of the Alamo! That was a bravery she could understand. Her
Roberto was indeed a hero! Though she could not bring herself to approve
the cause for which he fought, she was as sensitive as men and women
always are to victorious valor and a successful cause.

Rachela was in a state of rebellion. Nothing but the express orders
of Fray Ignatius, to remain where she was, prevented her leaving the
Worths; for the freedom so suddenly given to Isabel had filled her with
indignation. She was longing to be in some house where she could give
adequate expression to the diabolical temper she felt it right to
indulge.

In the af