ut a young officer in a very new uniform, hurrying up from the
direction of the jetty, interrupted his interpretation of Senor
Avellanos's ideals. The general made a movement of impatience; the other
went on talking to him insistently, with an air of respect. The horses
of the Staff had been embarked, the steamer's gig was awaiting the
general at the boat steps; and Barrios, after a fierce stare of his one
eye, began to take leave. Don Jose roused himself for an appropriate
phrase pronounced mechanically. The terrible strain of hope and fear was
telling on him, and he seemed to husband the last sparks of his fire for
those oratorical efforts of which even the distant Europe was to hear.
Antonia, her red lips firmly closed, averted her head behind the raised
fan; and young Decoud, though he felt the girl's eyes upon him, gazed
away persistently, hooked on his elbow, with a scornful and complete
detachment. Mrs. Gould heroically concealed her dismay at the appearance
of men and events so remote from her racial conventions, dismay too deep
to be uttered in words even to her husband. She understood his voiceless
reserve better now. Their confidential intercourse fell, not in moments
of privacy, but precisely in public, when the quick meeting of their
glances would comment upon some fresh turn of events. She had gone to
his school of uncompromising silence, the only one possible, since so
much that seemed shocking, weird, and grotesque in the working out of
their purposes had to be accepted as normal in this country. Decidedly,
the stately Antonia looked more mature and infinitely calm; but she
would never have known how to reconcile the sudden sinkings of her heart
with an amiable mobility of expression.

Mrs. Gould smiled a good-bye at Barrios, nodded round to the Europeans
(who raised their hats simultaneously) with an engaging invitation, "I
hope to see you all presently, at home"; then said nervously to Decoud,
"Get in, Don Martin," and heard him mutter to himself in French, as he
opened the carriage door, "_Le sort en est jete_." She heard him with a
sort of exasperation. Nobody ought to have known better than himself
that the first cast of dice had been already thrown long ago in a most
desperate game. Distant acclamations, words of command yelled out, and a
roll of drums on the jetty greeted the departing general. Something like
a slight faintness came over her, and she looked blankly at Antonia's
still face, wonderin