s daughter.
The rain had ceased and the storm had spent itself. It was a calm and
beautiful night, the moon shining with tropic splendor through the open
window dispensed with the necessity of lights. There was no one in the
cabinet when he entered, and he felt at last able to give way to his
emotion; Mercedes though she was not married was now lost to him beyond
recourse. After the women withdrew from the hall with Donna Mercedes
there was no restraint put upon the young nobles, and from the other
side of the patio came the sound of uproarious revelry and feasting--his
friends and comrades with generous cheer felicitating the happy
bridegroom that was to be. Alvarado was alone, undisturbed, forgotten,
and likely to remain so. He put his head upon his hands and groaned in
anguish.

"Why should it not have been I?" he murmured. "Is he stronger, braver, a
better soldier? Does he love her more? O Mother of God! Riches? Can I
not acquire them? Fame? Have I not a large measure? Birth? Ah, that is
it! My father! my mother! If I could only know! How she looked at me!
What piteous appeal in her eyes! What reproach when I stood passive
cased in iron, with a breaking heart. O my God! My God! Mercedes!
Mercedes!"

In his anguish he called the name aloud. So absorbed and preoccupied in
his grief had he been that he was not aware of a figure softly moving
along the balcony in the shadow. He did not hear a footfall coming
through the open window that gave into the room. He did not realize that
he had an auditor to his words, a witness to his grief, until a touch
soft as a snowflake fell upon his fair head and a voice for which he
languished whispered in his ear:

"You called me; I am come."

"Senorita Mercedes!" he cried, lifting his head and gazing upon her in
startled surprise. "How came you here?" he added brusquely, catching her
hands with a fierce grasp in the intensity of his emotion as he spoke.

"Is this my greeting?" she answered, surprised in turn that he had not
instantly swept her to his heart.

She strove to draw herself away, and when he perceived her intent he
opened his hands and allowed her arms to fall by her side.

"I have been mistaken," she went on piteously, "I am not wanted."

She turned away and stood full in the silver bar of the moonlight
streaming through the casement. Her white face shone in the light
against the dark background of the huge empty room--that face with its
aureole of soft dark hair