that love? He could not endure the thought that his little
girl might be made unhappy should the Captain fail to respond to her
love.

He, too, had seen Chiquita give him the rose from his study window which
overlooked the garden. So, when the sermon upon which he was engaged was
completed, he quietly descended to the garden with the intention of
administering to her a gentle admonition as well as giving her a little
wholesome advice. Chiquita, hearing the sound of his measured tread on
the gravel as he approached along the pathway, reseated herself on the
bench and began to fan herself unconcernedly.

What a picture she made against the pale plumy branches of the tamarisk,
thought Padre Antonio.

"I thought I heard voices," he said, seating himself beside her. "Has
any one been here?"

"Dona Fernandez has just gone," replied Chiquita absently. "She has been
giving me some of her advice."

"Advice?" echoed Padre Antonio, realizing the moment of his arrival to
be most opportune. "That's just what I have come to give you, my
child--advice!"

"What! You, too, Padre?" she exclaimed petulantly, looking at him
inquiringly. "_Dios!_ what have I done that everybody comes to give me
advice when I have so many other things to think of?"

"Chiquita," slowly began Padre Antonio, laying his hand gently on her
own, "I have always known you to be wiser than most women, the result no
doubt, of your early life and training in the wilds where people must
live by their wits for self-preservation if for nothing else." He paused
that he might the better collect his thoughts. She guessed what was
coming and began toying with her fan, an arch smile playing about her
delicate, sensitive mouth as she regarded him out of the corners of her
large dark eyes.

"Chiquita," he continued, "I do not like your extravagance. Have a care,
child, lest you become addicted to vanity."

"Again, just what the Senora said! Am I so vain as all that, Padre
_mio_, that you should be obliged to remind me of it?"

"Then why this continual display?" he asked pointedly. "You never used
to show such consideration for your admirers." She felt that it would
be not only foolish, but worse than useless to attempt to fence about
the truth with him.

"Ah, Padre _mio_," she sighed softly, blushing and laying her hand
lightly on his shoulder and looking up into his face with deep lustrous
eyes that softened with her words, "you--you forget--that I have never
be