Don Juan's will. But neither the Church nor old
Don Juan, as it afterwards proved, were a match for the clever Felipe.
The handsome scapegrace had already secretly married Pepita.

The strangest of all things is perhaps the irony of fate. Before the
year was up during which Felipe was charged to remain in the City of
Mexico, both his father, Don Juan, and the priest who had performed the
marriage ceremony for Felipe and Pepita, died. During his absence from
home, the observant and quick-witted Felipe had learned not only many
new things, but had made the acquaintance of other women as well. At its
best, the love of the passionate, hot-blooded Felipe and the gentle
Pepita could have endured only for a time. The attractions and
fascinations of the Capitol opened his eyes to many things which he had
hitherto overlooked, especially, that there are many beautiful women in
the world, and always one who is just a little more beautiful than the
others if one took the trouble to look for her. And so it happened that
he forgot not only his honor, but his obligations to Pepita, and
destroying the record of their marriage which he managed to secure with
the assistance of a confederate, he turned a deaf ear to her pleadings
and went his way.

What had he, Don Felipe Ramirez, who lived and ruled like a prince on
his vast estates, to fear from a pretty little half-caste Indian girl?

But Don Felipe was young and still had much to learn in the world. The
avenging angel that inevitably awaits us all at some turn or other in
the lane, stood nearer to him than he realized, and the vengeance which
followed was swift and complete.

Pepita took poison and died, but she died not alone--she died in the
arms of Chiquita who had but recently returned from the convent.

The latter frequently accompanied Padre Antonio on his charitable
missions and thus it chanced that she made Pepita's acquaintance and
learned her story. Time passed and all went well with Felipe until the
day he chanced to meet Chiquita.

We may deaden our souls to the voice of conscience, disavow a belief in
destiny and shut our eyes to those forces of the Invisible which, in
spite of ourselves, we know to exist, but how is it, that no man ever
succeeds in escaping his fate?

When Don Felipe Ramirez looked for the first time into the two dark
lustrous worlds of Chiquita's eyes, he beheld the height and depth of
his existence. From that moment he fell at her feet and worsh