hast to pray
for!"

"Come down and smile upon him, Maria. I should like him to see a
high-born Mexican lady. Are they not the kindest and fairest among all
God's women? I know, at least, Maria, that you are kind and fair"; and
he took her hands, and drew her within his embrace.

What good wife can resist her husband's wooing? Maria did not. She
lifted her face, her eyes shone through happy tears, she whispered
softly: "My Robert, it is a joy to please you. I will be kind; I will
be grateful about Thomas. You shall see that I will make a pleasant
evening."

So the triumphant husband went down, proud and happy, with his smiling
wife upon his arm. Isabel was already in the room. She also wore a white
frock, but her hair was pinned back with gold butterflies, and she had
a beautiful golden necklace around her throat. And the Senora kept
her word. She paid her guest great attention. She talked to him of his
adventures with the Indians. She requested her daughters to sing to him.
She told him stories of the old Castilian families with which she was
connected, and described her visit to New Orleans with a great deal of
pleasant humor. She felt that she was doing herself justice; that she
was charming; and, consequently, she also was charmed with the guest and
the occasion which had been so favorable to her.

After the ladies had retired, the doctor led his visitor into his study.
He sat down silently and placed a chair for Houston. Both men hesitated
for a moment to open the conversation. Worth, because he was treading
on unknown ground; Houston, because he did not wish to force, even by a
question, a resolution which he felt sure would come voluntarily.

The jar of tobacco stood between them, and they filled their pipes
silently. Then Worth laid a letter upon the table, and said: "I
unstand{sic} from this, that my son Thomas thinks the time has come for
decisive action."

"Thomas Worth is right. With such souls as his the foundation of the
state must be laid."

"I am glad Thomas has taken the position he has; but you must remember,
sir, that he is unmarried and unembarrassed by many circumstances which
render decisive movement on my part a much more difficult thing. Yet no
man now living has watched the Americanizing of Texas with the interest
that I have."

"You have been long on the watch, sir."

"I was here when my countrymen came first, in little companies of five
or ten men. I saw the party of twenty, who jo