per-table,
where, perceiving a measure of wine, I poured out a cup and called to
him to come and drink of it. He started to his feet at once and ran to
me with a strong expression of hope; but when he saw the wine he visibly
shuddered.

"Oh, no," he said, "not that; that is for you. I hate it."

"Very well, Senor," said I; "then I will drink to your good health, and
to the prosperity of your house and family. Speaking of which," I added,
after I had drunk, "shall I not have the pleasure of laying my
salutations in person at the feet of the Senora, your mother?"

But at these words all the childishness passed out of his face, and was
succeeded by a look of indescribable cunning and secrecy. He backed away
from me at the same time, as though I were an animal about to leap or
some dangerous fellow with a weapon, and when he had got near the door,
glowered at me sullenly with contracted pupils. "No," he said at last,
and the next moment was gone noiselessly out of the room; and I heard
his footing die away downstairs as light as rainfall, and silence closed
over the house.

After I had supped I drew up the table nearer to the bed and began to
prepare for rest; but in the new position of the light, I was struck by
a picture on the wall. It represented a woman, still young. To judge by
her costume and the mellow unity which reigned over the canvas, she had
long been dead; to judge by the vivacity of the attitude, the eyes and
the features, I might have been beholding in a mirror the image of life.
Her figure was very slim and strong, and of a just proportion; red
tresses lay like a crown over her brow; her eyes, of a very golden
brown, held mine with a look; and her face, which was perfectly shaped,
was yet marred by a cruel, sullen, and sensual expression. Something in
both face and figure, something exquisitely intangible, like the echo of
an echo, suggested the features and bearing of my guide; and I stood a
while unpleasantly attracted and wondering at the oddity of the
resemblance. The common, carnal stock of that race, which had been
originally designed for such high dames as the one now looking on me
from the canvas, had fallen to baser uses, wearing country clothes,
sitting on the shaft and holding the reins of a mule cart, to bring
home a lodger. Perhaps an actual link subsisted; perhaps some scruple of
the delicate flesh that was once clothed upon with the satin and brocade
of the dead lady, now winced at the ru