main garden-walk meets the one going along the bottom, is
another open space, smaller than that around the fountain, still
sufficient to let in the light of the moon. Here also have been seats
and statues; the latter lying shattered, as if hashed to the earth by
the hand of some ruthless iconoclast. Just opposite, is a breach in the
wall; the mud bricks, crumbled into clods forming a _talus_ on each face
of it.

Arriving at this, the _mestizo_ makes stop. Only for an instant, long
enough to give a last glance up the garden.

Apparently satisfied, that he is not followed nor observed, he scrambles
up the slope and down on the opposite side, where he is lost to the view
of the sisters; who both stand wondering--the younger sensibly
trembling.

"What on earth is the fellow after?" asks Helen, whose speech comes
first.

"What, indeed?" echoes Jessie.

"A question, sister, you should be better able to answer than I. He is
the trusted servant of M. Dupre; and he, I take it, has told you all
about him."

"Not a word has he. He knows that I don't like the man, and never did
from the first. I've intimated as much to him more than once."

"That ought to have got Master Fernand his discharge. Your Luis will
surely not keep him, if he knows it's disagreeable to you?"

"Well, perhaps he wouldn't if I were to put it in that way. I haven't
done so yet. I only hinted that the man wasn't altogether to my liking;
especially made so much of as Luis makes of him. You must know, dear
Helen, my future lord and master is of a very trusting nature; far too
much, I fear, for some of the people now around him. He has been
brought up like all Creoles, without thought for the morrow. A
sprinkling of Yankee cuteness wouldn't do him any harm. As for this
fellow, he has insinuated himself into Luis's confidence in some way
that appears quite mysterious. It even puzzles our father; though he's
said nothing much about it. So far he appears satisfied, because the
man has proved capable, and, I believe, very useful to them in their
affairs. For my part I've been mystified by him all along, and not less
now. I wonder what he can be after. Can you not give a guess?"

"Not the slightest; unless it be theft. Do you think it's that?"

"I declare I don't know."

"Is there anything he could be carrying off from the house, with the
intention of secreting it outside? Some of your Luis's gold for
instance, or the pretty jewels he