s it
affects other ladies in love, and my fair creole expresses a desire to
see me. Don Severiano will be leaving the estate for town on a certain
day, and, if I am willing, a meeting may easily be effected. Saturnino,
the mule-driver, who is in the secret, undertakes to guide me to the
trysting-place. I accordingly obtain a fast-trotting steed, and follow
him through the intricate country, which, after many hours' riding,
brings us to the neighbourhood of La Intimidad. There my guide conducts
me to a tumble-down negro hut kept by a decrepit negress, and situated
in the midst of a very paradise of banana-trees, plantains, palms, and
gigantic ferns. The fare which my hostess provides consists of native
fruits and vegetables, cooked in a variety of ways, together with
'bacalao' (dried cod-fish), and 'tasajito,' or salted meat, dried in the
sun. After my fatiguing pilgrimage, I refresh myself with a cigarette
and a cup of well-made 'cafe negro;' I bathe in spring water diluted
with aguardiente rum, and exchange my soiled clothes of white drill for
a fresh suit of the same material. Towards the cool of the evening, as I
sit smoking a long damp cigar before the door of my rustic habitation,
the flapping of huge plantain-leaves, and the clatter of horses' hoofs,
announce the approach of my charmer, who, escorted by the faithful
Gumersinda, has come to visit me in my homely retreat. I assist Cachita
in alighting from her steed, and in due course we are seated beneath the
shade of an overhanging mango-tree, whose symmetrical leaves reach to
the ground, and completely conceal us. We are disturbed by no other
sound than the singing of birds, the creaking of hollow bamboos, and the
rippling of water. Under these pleasant circumstances, we converse and
make love to our hearts' content. The cautious Gumersinda warns us when
the hour for separation arrives, and then we reluctantly part. Our
agreeable tete-a-tete is repeated on the following day, but as Don
Severiano is expected to return the day after, this is our last
interview.

On my road back to town, whom should I meet, at a wayside tienda, but
Cachita's formidable parent, together with his friend Senor Catasus,
and my rival, the young Amador! Don Severiano is furious. High words
pass between us, there is a scene, and I leave the cane-field proprietor
swearing to punish everybody concerned in his daughter's secret
engagement.

Some days after my return to town, I learn that th