ng from the sofa and crossing the room
to the window which looked out over the _patio_ into the garden. "There
he is now, pacing back and forth beneath the trees. What a restless man
he is!"

"After the first cup, you might disappear, Bess," said Blanch. "I want
to try to find out if he still cares for that Indian?"

"That was the most romantic thing I ever heard!" exclaimed Bessie.

"I wonder he ever returned," answered Blanch, opening the door and
leading the way across the _patio_ in the direction of the garden. The
tinkle of a guitar attracted their attention to a group of _peons_ and
women squatted on their heels on one side of the court, in the shade of
the arcades, smoking and chatting. A little beyond them, in the shadow
of the doorway, stood the major-domo, Juan Ramon and the pretty
housekeeper, Rosita.

"_Dios!_ but she is _magnifico_--the tall one!" whispered Juan to Rosita
as the girls passed them, nodding and smiling in response to Juan's deep
salutation and Rosita's courtesy.

"And the little one," said Rosita in turn. "Is she not like a half-blown
pink rose?"

"Aye! 'tis a feast for the eyes to look at them!" answered Juan. "There
has not been so much life in the place since the old days when the
Master was alive."

"If Don Felipe doesn't marry one of them he's a fool," added Rosita.

"That's just what I have been saying to myself," returned Juan.

"What else can he be doing here if he doesn't intend to take one of them
back to his _hacienda_ with him?" continued Rosita. "I've noticed that
he and the tall one spend much time together."

"Aye!" ejaculated Juan. "It must be lonely at the old _rancho_ without a
woman to keep him company."

"The tall Senorita would be just the one for the place!" exclaimed
Rosita enthusiastically.

"Rosita _mia_," began Juan confidentially after a short silence, during
which his gaze rested pensively on the retreating figures of the girls,
"I've just been thinking that there is no happiness for a man, still
less for a woman, in a single life. What say you, Rosita _mia_," he went
on, patting her familiarly on the cheek.

"Juan Ramon," interrupted Rosita with an angry flush, "if you don't want
to get your face slapped, you had better behave like a _Caballero_!"

"_Caramba!_ what a little spitfire!" returned Juan, pulling the end of
his thin mustache, yet not in the least disconcerted by her show of
temper. "But supposing, my pearl of a housekeeper, that I bough