--that's the first--no, that's two qualities. Be
just, Lawrence, whatever you are, be just. Earnestness, then, that's
the first point. Whatever else I may have been wrong about, there can
be no mistake about that. She is intensely earnest. How often have I
noticed her rapt attention and the eager flash of her dark eyes when
Pedro or I chanced to tell any anecdote in which injustice or cruelty
was laid bare. She is so earnest that I think sometimes she has
difficulty in perceiving when one is in jest. She does not understand a
practical joke--well, to be sure there was that upsetting of the coffee
on Quashy's leg! But after all I _must_ have been mistaken in that. So
much, then, for her earnestness. Next, simplicity. No child could be
more simple. Utterly ignorant of the ways of the world--the nauseous
conventionalities of civilised life! Brought up in a wigwam, no doubt,
among the simple aborigines of the Pampas, or the mountains--yes, it
must have been the mountains, for the Incas of Peru dwelt in the Andes."

He paused here for a few minutes and sauntered on in silence, while a
tinge of perplexity mingled with the frown. No doubt he was thinking of
the tendency exhibited now and then by the aborigines of the Pampas and
mountains to raid on the white man now and then, and appropriate his
herds as well as scalp himself!

"However, _she_ had nothing to do with that," he muttered,
apologetically, "and cannot help the peculiarities of her kindred.
Gentleness; that is the next quality. A man may mistake motives, but he
cannot mistake facts. Her gentleness and sweetness are patent facts,
and her modesty is also obvious. Then, she is a Christian. Pedro told
me so. She never omits to pray, night and morning. Of course, _that_
does not constitute a Christian, but--well, then the Sabbath-day she has
all along respected; and I am almost sure that our regular halts on that
day, although ordered by Pedro, were suggested by Manuela. Of course,
praying and Sabbath-keeping may be done by hypocrites, and for a bad
end; but who, save a consummately blind idiot, would charge that girl
with hypocrisy? Besides, what could she gain by it all? Pshaw! the
idea is ridiculous. Of course there are many more good qualities which
I might enumerate, but these are the most important and clearly
pronounced--very clearly."

He said this very decidedly, for somehow a counteracting suggestion came
from somewhere, reminding him