at the ship that would sail onward this afternoon.

Then a smile of great beauty passed over his face, and he addressed the
strange. "I thank you. You will never know what you have done for me."

"It is nothing," answered the stranger, awkwardly. "He told me you set
great store on a new organ."

Padre Ignacio turned away from the ship and rode back through the gorge.
When he had reached the shady place where once he had sat with Gaston
Villere, he dismounted and again sat there, alone by the stream, for
many hours. Long rides and outings had been lately so much his custom
that no one thought twice of his absence; and when he resumed to the
mission in the afternoon, the Indian took his mule, and he went to his
seat in the garden. But it was with another look that he watched the
sea; and presently the sail moved across the blue triangle, and soon it
had rounded the headland.

With it departed Temptation for ever.

Gaston's first coming was in the Padre's mind; and, as the vespers bell
began to ring in the cloistered silence, a fragment of Auber's plaintive
tune passed like a sigh across his memory.

[Musical score appears here]

For the repose of Gaston's young, world-loving spirit, they sang all
that he had taught them of Il Trovatore.

After this day, Felipe and all those who knew and loved the Padre best,
saw serenity had returned to his features; but for some reason they
began to watch those features with more care.

"Still," they said, "he is not old." And as the months went by they
would repeat: "We shall have him yet for many years."

Thus the season rolled round, bringing the time for the expected
messages from the world. Padre Ignacio was wont to sit in his garden,
waiting for the ship, as of old.

"As of old," they said, cheerfully, who saw him. But Renunciation with
Contentment they could not see; it was deep down in his silent and
thanked heart.

One day Felipe went to call him from his garden seat, wondering why the
ringing of the bell had not brought him to vespers. Breviary in lap, and
hands folded upon it, the Padre sat among his flowers, looking at the
sea. Out there amid the sapphire-blue, tranquil and white, gleamed the
sails of the barkentine. It had brought him a new message, not from this
world; and Padre Ignacio was slowly borne in from the garden, while the
mission-bell tolled for the passing of a human soul.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Padre Ignacio, by Owen Wiste