veral corridors and rapped on a door.

"Come in!" answered a voice.

"May God give back health to Your Reverence!" was the greeting of
the young Dominican as he entered.

A very feeble old priest was seated in a large arm-chair. His
complexion was as yellow as the saints which Revera paints; his eyes
were sunk deep in their orbits, and his heavy eyebrows, which were
nearly always knit in a frown, added to the brilliant glare of his
death-foreboding eyes.

"I have come to talk to you about the charge with which you have
entrusted me," said Father Sibyla.

"Ah, yes. And what about it?"

"Pshaw!" answered the young man with disgust, seating himself and
turning his face away with disdain. "They have been telling us a
lot of lies. Young Ibarra is a prudent boy. He does not seem to be
a fool. I think he is a pretty good sort of a chap."

"Do you think so?"

"Hostilities began last night."

"So soon? And how did it come about?"

Father Sibyla related briefly what had taken place between Father
Damaso and Crisostomo Ibarra.

"Furthermore," he added, in conclusion, "the young man is going to
marry that daughter of Captain Tiago, who was educated in the college
of our sisters. He is rich and would not want to make any enemies
who might cause the loss of his happiness and his fortune."

The sick man bowed his head as a sign of assent. "Yes, that is my
opinion. With such a wife and such a father-in-law we can hold him
body and soul. And if not, it will be all the better for us if he
declares himself our enemy."

Father Sibyla looked at the old man with surprise.

"That is to say, for the good of our whole corporation," he added,
breathing with difficulty. "I prefer open attacks to the foolish
praise and adulations of friends, for, the truth is, flattery is
always paid for."

"Does Your Reverence think so?"

The old man looked at him sadly. "Always bear this in mind," he
answered, panting with fatigue, "that our power will endure as long
as it is believed in. If they attack us, the Government says, 'They
attack them, because they see in them an obstacle to their liberty,
therefore let us preserve them.'"

"And if the Government gives them a hearing? Sometimes the
Government----"

"The Government will do no such thing."

"Nevertheless, if some bold and reckless man, impelled by covetousness,
should dare to think that he wanted our possessions----"

"Then, woe to him!"

For a moment both remained silent.