his horses. I was a great convenience to him. I had a knack of governing
and carrying points in his family that it had always troubled and
fatigued him to endeavor to arrange,--and that was all. So that my
intercourse with Dolores was as free and unwatched, and gave me as many
opportunities of enjoying her undisturbed society, as heart could
desire.

At last came the crisis, however. After breakfast one morning, Don Jose
called Dolores into his library and announced to her that he had
concluded for her a treaty of marriage, and expected her husband to
arrive in a few days. He expected that this news would be received by
her with the glee with which a young girl hears of a new dress or of a
ball-ticket, and was quite confounded at the grave and mournful silence
in which she received it. She said no word, made no opposition, but went
out from the room and shut herself up in her own apartment, and spent
the day in tears and sobs.

Don Jose, who had rather a greater regard for Dolores than for any
creature living, and who had confidently expected to give great delight
by the news he had imparted, was quite confounded by this turn of
things. If there had been one word of either expostulation or argument,
he would have blazed and stormed in a fury of passion; but as it was,
this broken-hearted submission, though vexatious, was perplexing. He
sent for me, and opened his mind, and begged me to talk with Dolores
and show her the advantages of the alliance, which the poor foolish
child, he said, did not seem to comprehend. The man was immensely rich,
and had a splendid estate in Cuba. It was a most desirable thing.

I ventured to inquire whether his person and manners were such as would
be pleasing to a young girl, and could gather only that he was a man of
about fifty, who had been most of his life in the military service, and
was now desirous of making an establishment for the repose of his latter
days, at the head of which he would place a handsome and tractable
woman, and do well by her.

I represented that it would perhaps be safer to say no more on the
subject until Dolores had seen him, and to this he agreed. Madame
Mendoza was very zealous in the affair, for the sake of getting clear of
the presence of Dolores in the family, and her sisters laughed at her
for her dejected appearance. They only wished, they said, that so much
luck might happen to them. For myself, I endeavored to take as little
notice as possible of th