hat when her aunt came to call her,
Maria Clara fell on the old lady's neck and kissed her repeatedly.

"You goose! What is the matter with you?" the old lady was finally
able to ask, after wiping away her tears.

Maria Clara, in her modesty, covered her face with her round arm.

"Come! Hurry up and get yourself ready!" said the old lady in an
affectionate tone. "While he is talking with your father about you----
Come, do not waste time!"

The girl did not respond, but allowed herself to be picked up like
a child and carried to her room.

Captain Tiago and Ibarra were talking earnestly when at last Aunt
Isabel appeared, half dragging her niece by the hand. At first the
girl looked in every direction but at the persons present. At last,
however, her eyes met Ibarra's.

The conversation of the young lovers was at first confined to the
usual trifling remarks, those pleasant little things which, like the
boasts of European nations, are enjoyable and interesting to those
who are concerned and understand them, but ridiculous to outsiders.

Finally, she, like all sisters of Cain, was moved by jealously and
asked: "Have you always thought of me? Have you never forgotten
me in your many travels among so many great cities and among such
beautiful women?"

And he, a true brother of Cain, dodged the issue, and, being something
of a diplomat, answered: "Could I forget you?" And then, gazing into
her deep, dark eyes, "Could I break a sacred vow? Do you remember that
stormy night when you, seeing me in tears beside my dead mother, came
to me and placed your hand--that hand which I have not touched for
so long--upon my shoulder, and said: 'You have lost your mother,--I
never had one.' And then you wept with me. You loved my mother, and
she loved you as only a mother can love a daughter. It was raining
then, you will remember, and the lightning flashed, but I seemed
to hear music and to see a smile on the face of my dead mother.--O,
if my parents were only living and could see you now!--That night I
took your hand and, joining it with my mother's, I swore always to
love you and make you happy, no matter what fate Heaven might have
in store for me. I have never regretted that vow, and now renew it."

"Since the day that I bade you good-bye and entered the convent,"
she answered, smiling, "I have always remembered you, and have never
forgotten you in spite of the commands of my confessor, who imposed
severe penances on me. I re