, with much gesticulation, playing at
dice. They came out hastily at the sound of the carriage; and as Mr.
Ward handed out Mary, and inquired for Mr. Ponsonby, she recognised and
addressed the white-woolled old Xavier, the mayor domo. Poor old
Xavier! Often had she hunted and teased him, and tried to make him
understand 'cosas de Inglaterra,' and to make him cease from his
beloved dice; but no sooner did he see her face than, with a cry of
joy, 'La Senorita Maria! la Senorita Maria!' down he went upon his
knees, and began kissing the hem of her dress.

All the rest of the negro establishment came round, capering and
chattering Spanish; and, in the confusion, Mary could not get her
question heard--Where was her father? and Xavier's vehement threats and
commands to the others to be silent, did not produce a calm. At last,
bearing a light, there came forward a faded, sallow dame, with a candle
in her hand, who might have sat for the picture of the Duena Rodriguez,
and at her appearance the negroes subsided. She was an addition to the
establishment since Mary's departure; but in her might be easily
recognised the Tia, the individual who in Limenian households holds a
position between companion and housekeeper. She introduced herself by
the lugubrious appellation of Senora Dolores, and, receiving Mary with
obsequious courtesy, explained that the Senor and Senora were at a
tertulia, or evening party. She lighted Mary and Mr. Ward into the
quadra; and there Mr. Ward, shaking hands with her as if he would
thereby compensate for all that was wanting in her welcome, promised to
go and inform her father of her arrival.

Mary stood in the large dark room, with the soft matted floor, and the
windows high up near the carved timbered ceiling, the single lamp,
burning in rum, casting a dim gleam over the well-known furniture, by
which her mother had striven to give an English appearance to the room.
It was very dreary, and she would have given the world to be alone with
her throbbing head, her dull heartache, and the weariness of spirits
over-long wound up for the meeting; but her own apartment could be no
refuge until it had been cleansed and made ready, and Dolores and
Xavier were persecuting her every moment with their hospitality and
their inquiries. Then came a quick, manly tread, and for a moment her
heart almost seemed to stand still, in the belief that it was her
father; but it was only Robson, hurrying in to offer his