o remain the protector or the servant
of Yaquita without becoming her husband. The wish of the dying Magalhaes
was so urgent that resistance became impossible. Yaquita put her hand
into the hand of Joam, and Joam did not withdraw it.

Yes! It was a serious matter! Joam Dacosta ought to have confessed
all, or to have fled forever from the house in which he had been so
hospitably received, from the establishment of which he had built up
the prosperity! Yes! To confess everything rather than to give to the
daughter of his benefactor a name which was not his, instead of the name
of a felon condemned to death for murder, innocent though he might be!

But the case was pressing, the old fazender was on the point of death,
his hands were stretched out toward the young people! Joam was silent,
the marriage took place, and the remainder of his life was devoted to
the happiness of the girl he had made his wife.

"The day when I confess everything," Joam repeated, "Yaquita will pardon
everything! She will not doubt me for an instant! But if I ought not to
have deceived her, I certainly will not deceive the honest fellow who
wishes to enter our family by marrying Mina! No! I would rather give
myself up and have done with this life!"

Many times had Joam thought of telling his wife about his past life.
Yes! the avowal was on his lips whenever she asked him to take her
into Brazil, and with her and her daughter descend the beautiful Amazon
river. He knew sufficient of Yaquita to be sure that her affection for
him would not thereby be diminished in the least. But courage failed
him!

And this is easily intelligible in the face of the happiness of the
family, which increased on every side. This happiness was his work, and
it might be destroyed forever by his return.

Such had been his life for those long years; such had been the
continuous source of his sufferings, of which he had kept the secret so
well; such had been the existence of this man, who had no action to
be ashamed of, and whom a great injustice compelled to hide away from
himself!

But at length the day arrived when there could no longer remain a doubt
as to the affection which Manoel bore to Minha, when he could see that
a year would not go by before he was asked to give his consent to her
marriage, and after a short delay he no longer hesitated to proceed in
the matter.

A letter from him, addressed to Judge Ribeiro, acquainted the chief
justice with the secret