cated that the rainy season was
approaching. I had been to the mission to look after my business, and
was riding slowly homeward, through the heavy sultry air, when all at
once the storm broke over me. It came tearing down from the blue
mountains, raging and driving over the savannas in unchecked fury. I
put spurs to my horse, in a fruitless effort to reach home before the
worst came, for I knew full well what would follow this outbreak. At
this moment I saw approaching me, at full speed, a white horse, whose
rider was making hopeless attempts to manage him. I at once recognized
Inez, and placing myself across the path, succeeded in seizing the
bridle and stopping the animal in his mad night.

"No time was now to be lost in bringing the girl home to her father,
and in such a storm my presence was necessary for her protection. She
had been riding alone, as usual, and on the return home her horse had
taken the wrong road. The storm became more and more violent; the
lightning nearly blinded us, and terrified our horses. The rain now
began to pour down in torrents, and it was impossible for Inez to
retain her seat in the saddle. She remembered a little deserted negro
cabin in the neighborhood, under a grove of magnolias, and thither we
fled. There was no light in the hut; the wind bent the trees down on
its roof and dashed the rain against its sides, so that we expected
every moment to be killed. Inez drew closer to me and trembled
violently, as I supported her quivering form with my arm. I spoke
soothingly to her, as I would have done to a timid child; and as I bent
over to comfort her, a flash of lightning lit up the place, so that I
could look into her eyes dilated with fear, and she into mine.
Then--she kissed me again and again. Carmen, your mother was one of
the most innocent, the purest beings on earth; in her heart was no
impure thought, in her life was no action which could not bear the
light of day. But there, under the glowing, tropical skies, blood
flies quicker through the veins than here in our cool Germany; and from
childhood to womanhood is but one, sudden leap. When I felt her kisses
on my lips, I was taken aback; I had thought of her only as a beautiful
child, but now I recognized the woman in her, and--I was a married man.

"A sound of anxious hallooing reached our ears. It was made by the
negroes which Don Manuel had sent out in search of his child; and as
the first fury of the storm had