to his grief, on Maria Clara's balcony under her
favorite vines.

"How he loves his god-daughter!" thought they all.

Father Salvi witnessed the scene, immovable and silent, lightly biting
his lips.

When his grief was somewhat soothed, Father Damaso was introduced
by Dona Victorina to the young Linares, who approached the friar
with respect.

Father Damaso gazed at him in silence from head to foot. He took
the letter which the young man handed to him and read it apparently
without understanding it, for he asked him:

"And who are you?"

"Alfonso Linares, the god-son of your brother-in-law," stammered the
young man.

Father Damaso leaned back and examined the young man again. His face
brightened up and he rose to his feet.

"And so you are the god-son of little Charles!" he exclaimed. "Come
here and let me embrace you. It was some days ago that I received your
letter. So it is you! I did not know you--but that is easily explained,
for you were not yet born when I left the country. I never knew you."

And Father Damaso stretched out his robust arms to the young man who
blushed, either from shame or suffocation. Father Damaso seemed to
have completely forgotten his grief.

After the first moments of effusion had passed, and questions had been
asked about Carlicos, as he called little Charles, Father Damaso asked:

"Well. What does Carlicos want me to do for you?"

"I believe he says something in the letter," stammered Linares again.

"In the letter? Let us see. 'Tis so! And he wants me to get you a
job and a wife! Hm! Employment--employment: that is easy. Do you know
how to read and write?"

"I have graduated in law from the Central University."

"Carambas! So you are a pettifogger? Well, you don't look it--you look
more like a young gentleman. But so much the better! But to find you
a wife--hm! hm! a wife."

"Father, I am not in a hurry about it," said Linares, confused.

But Father Damaso began to walk from one end of the room to the other,
muttering: "A wife! A wife!"

His face by this time was no longer sad, nor was it cheerful. It
expressed the greatest seriousness and he seemed to be
meditating. Father Salvi surveyed the scene from a distance.

"I did not believe that it could give me such pain," murmured Father
Damaso in a mournful voice. "But of two evils the lesser."

And raising his voice and approaching Linares, he said:

"Come here, my boy! We will speak with Santiago."

Linares tu