ssing. And they say, 'Imbecile and pig!' But
he is not imbecile and pig; for he has seen, and Don Jorge has seen; and
why? For it is not a girl, but what you call her--a ghost! And they will
that Don Esteban should make a picture of her--a design; and he make
one. And old Don Gregorio he say, 'madre de Dios! it is Rosita'--the
same that hung under the crucifix in the big room."

"And is that all?" asked Dick, with a somewhat pronounced laugh, but a
face that looked quite white in the moonlight.

"No, it ees NOT all. For when Don Gregorio got himself more company
another time--it ees all yonge ladies, and my aunt she is invite too;
for she was yonge then, and she herself have tell to me this:--

"One night she is in the garden with the other girls, and when they want
to go in the casa one have say, 'Where is Francisca Pacheco? Look,
she came here with us, and now she is not.' Another one say, 'She have
conceal herself to make us affright.' And my aunt she say, 'I will
go seek that I shall find her.' And she go. And when she came to the
pear-tree, she heard Francisca's voice, and it say to some one she see
not, 'Fly! vamos! some one have come.' And then she come at the moment
upon Francisca, very white and trembling, and--alone. And Francisca she
have run away and say nossing, and shut herself in her room. And one of
the other girls say: 'It is the handsome caballero with the little black
moustache and sad white face that I have seen in the garden that make
this. It is truly that he is some poor relation of Don Gregorio, or
some mad kinsman that he will not we should know.' And my aunt ask Don
Gregorio; for she is yonge. And he have say: 'What silly fool ees thees?
There is not one caballero here, but myself.' And when the other young
girl have tell to him how the caballero look, he say: 'The saints save
us! I cannot more say. It ees Don Vincente, who haf gone dead.' And
he cross himself, and--But look! Madre de Dios! Mees Cecily, you are
ill--you are affrighted. I am a gabbling fool! Help her, Don Ricardo;
she is falling!"

But it was too late: Cecily had tried to rise to her feet, had staggered
forward and fallen in a faint on the bench.

*****

Dick did not remember how he helped to carry the insensible Cecily to
the casa, nor what explanation he had given to the alarmed inmates of
her sudden attack. He recalled vaguely that something had been said of
the overpowering perfumes of the garden at that hour, that the