ve had no happier day
than this."

As the only law at Quipai was the abbe's will, and we had neither
settlements to make, trousseaux to prepare, nor house to get ready (the
abbe's house being big enough for us all), there was no reason why our
wedding should be delayed, and the week after Angela and I had plighted
our troth, we were married at the church of San Cristobal.

The abbe's wedding-present to Angela was a gold cross studded with large
uncut diamonds. Where he got them I had no idea, but I heard
afterward--and something more.

All this time nothing, save vague generalities, had passed between us on
the subject of religion--rather to my surprise, for priests are not wont
to ignore so completely their _raison d'etre_, but I subsequently found
that Balthazar, albeit a devout Christian, was no bigot. Either his early
training, his long isolation from ecclesiastical influence, or his
communings with Nature had broadened his horizon and spiritualized his
beliefs. Dogma sat lightly on him, and he construed the apostolic
exhortations to charity in their widest sense. But these views were
reserved for Angela and myself. With his flock he was the Roman
ecclesiastic--a sovereign pontiff--whom they must obey in this world on
pain of being damned in the next. For he held that the only ways of
successfully ruling semi-civilized races are by physical force, personal
influence, or their fear of the unseen and the unknown. At the outset
Balthazar, having no physical force at his command, had to trust
altogether to personal influence, which, being now re-enforced by the
highest religious sanctions, made his power literally absolute. Albeit
Quipai possessed neither soldiers, constables, nor prison, his authority
was never questioned; he was as implicitly obeyed as a general at the head
of an army in the field.

I have spoken of the abbe's communings with Nature. I ought rather to have
said his searchings into her mysteries; for he was a shrewd philosopher
and keen observer, and despite the disadvantages under which he labored,
the scarcity of his books, and the rudeness of his instruments, he had
acquired during his long life a vast fund of curious knowledge which he
placed unreservedly at my disposal. I became his pupil, and it was he who
first kindled in my breast that love of science which for nearly
three-score years I have lived only to gratify.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE ABBE'S LEGACY.

Life was easy at Quipai, an