at
instant told her he loved her, and she had said she loved him, and would
marry him, just as you came up."

"Humph!" retorted the Senora; "do you think that Indian would have dared
to speak a word of love to the Senorita Ramona Ortegna, if she had not
conducted herself shamelessly? I wonder that he concerned himself to
speak about marriage to her at all."

"Oh, mother! mother!" was all that Felipe could say to this. He was
aghast. He saw now, in a flash, the whole picture as it lay in his
mother's mind, and his heart sank within him. "Mother!" he repeated, in
a tone which spoke volumes.

"Ay," she continued, "that is what I say. I see no reason why he
hesitated to take her, as he would take any Indian squaw, with small
ceremony of marrying."

"Alessandro would not take any woman that way any quicker than I would,
mother," said Felipe courageously; "you do him injustice." He longed
to add, "And Ramona too," but he feared to make bad matters worse by
pleading for her at present.

"No, I do not," said the Senora; "I do Alessandro full justice. I
think very few men would have behaved as well as he has under the same
temptation. I do not hold him in the least responsible for all that has
happened. It is all Ramona's fault."

Felipe's patience gave way. He had not known, till now, how very closely
this pure and gentle girl, whom he had loved as a sister in his boyhood,
and had come near loving as a lover in his manhood, had twined herself
around his heart. He could not remain silent another moment, and hear
her thus wickedly accused.

"Mother!" he exclaimed, in a tone which made the Senora look up at him
in sudden astonishment. "Mother, I cannot help it if I make you very
angry; I must speak; I can't bear to hear you say such things of Ramona.
I have seen for a long time that Alessandro loved the very ground under
her feet; and Ramona would not have been a woman if she had not seen it
too! She has seen it, and has felt it, and has come to love him with all
her soul, just as I hope some woman will love me one of these days. If I
am ever loved as well as she loves Alessandro, I shall be lucky. I think
they ought to be married; and I think we ought to take Alessandro on to
the estate, so that they can live here. I don't see anything disgraceful
in it, nor anything wrong, nor anything but what was perfectly natural.
You know, mother, it isn't as if Ramona really belonged to our family;
you know she is half Indian." A s