receive graciously
the congratulations of his friends.

And this time Pepe told his love to Pancha in words. In the warm
twilight of the spring evening--being followed, as custom in Mexico
prescribes, by the discreet _tia_ Antonia, also come into Monterey for
the Easter festival--they walked slowly among the bushes and trees
lining the bank of the _ojo de agua_, passed beneath the arch of the
causeway, and stood beside the broad, clear pool where the water of
the great spring pauses a little before it flows outward to the
stream. It was on this very spot, say the legends of the town, that
the good Franciscan fathers, three hundred years ago, set up the holy
cross and sang their song of thankfulness and praise.

And here it was--while the discreet _tia_ Antonia manifested her
discretion by standing where she could watch closely, yet could not
hear--that to Pancha were whispered the sweetest words that ever she
had heard, that ever she was to hear. In her memory dwelt for a little
while joyously the picture of the dark water at her feet that, a
little beyond, grew duskily green with aquatic plants; the massive
stone causeway that cast a shadow upon them in the waning light
reflected from the red sky beyond the Mitras crest; the trees beside
the spring swaying a little in the gentle evening wind; the hush over
all of the departing day. Very dear to Pancha was the memory of this
picture--until, in the same setting, came another picture, ghastly,
terrible, that made the place more horrible to her than the crazing
horror of a dream. But the future was closed to her, happily, and in
her heart that Easter evening was only a perfect happiness and a
perfect love.

Later, when they went back to the _jacal_ of wattled cane, there was
great rejoicing among the older folk that Pepe's suit had sped so
well. It was not, of course, a surprise to anybody, this suit of his.
In point of fact, it all had been duly settled beforehand between the
two old men,--as a well-conducted love affair in Mexico properly must
be,--and this dramatic climax to it was a mere nominal concession to
Pepe's foreign tastes, acquired through much association with
_Americanos_ upon the frontier. So, the result being satisfactory, the
Paras brandy was brought forth again, and toasts were drunk to Pepe's
and Pancha's long happiness. And these were followed by toasts to the
success--though that was assured in advance, of course--of a great
venture in which Pepe