the daughters of the
house. I could only distinguish a very white head, with a small
black skull-cap, a stooping figure, and a great gold cross, which, I
concluded, represented the holy man; something in black, with a very
long veil descending from the back of her head, being as evidently the
niece.

A few formal introductions were gone through in clever pantomime, dinner
was announced, and the company paired off in all stateliness, while
the host, seizing my arm, led me across the room, and in a few words
presented me to the fair widow, who courtesied, and accepted my arm, and
away we marched in that solemn procession by which people endeavor to
thaw the ice of first acquaintance.

"Your first visit to Ireland, I believe, Senhora?" said I, in Spanish,
wishing to say something as we walked along.

"Yes, Senhor, and yours also, I understand?" replied she.

"Not exactly," muttered I, taken too suddenly to recover myself; "when
I was a boy, a mere child--" I here by accident employed a Mexican
word almost synonymous with the French "gamin." She started, and said
eagerly, "How! you have been in Mexico?"

"Yes, Senhora, I have passed some years in that country."

"I am a Mexican," cried she, delightedly. "Tell me, where have you
traveiled, and whom did you know there?"

"I have travelled a good deal, but scarcely knew any one," replied I.
"At Guajuaqualla--"

"Oh, were you there? My own neighborhood,--my home," exclaimed she,
fervidly.

"Then probably you know Don Estaban Olares," said I.

"My own father!"

I turned round; our eyes met; it was just at the very entrance of the
dinner-room, where a blaze of light was shed on everything, and there
upon my arm--her hand trembling, her cheek colorless, and her eyes
swimming in tears--was Donna Maria! Neither of us spoke, neither of us
could speak!--and while her eyes wandered from my face to the several
decorations I wore upon my breast, and I watched with agonizing
intensity the look of terror she threw down the table towards the place
where her uncle was seated, I with a small black skull-cap, a stooping
figure, and a great gold cross, which, I concluded, represented the holy
man; something in black, with a very long veil descending from the back
of her head, being as evidently the niece.

A few formal introductions were gone through in clever pantomime, dinner
was announced, and the company paired off in all stateliness, while
the host, seizing my arm, led me