so often read the single inscription, "Guillermo"? If so,
could not the portrait be cleaned? But Jose himself had not dared
attempt it. Perhaps some day that could be done by one skilled in such
art.

And did Carmen inherit any of her unique traits from either of her
parents? Her voice, her religious instinct, her keen mentality--whence
came they? "From God," the girl would always answer whenever he voiced
the query in her presence. And he could not gainsay it.

Seven years had passed. And Jose found himself sitting beside the
sleeping girl and dumbly yielding to the separation which now had
come. Was his work finished? His course run? And, if he must live and
solve his problem, could he stand after she had left? He bent closer
to her, and listened to the gentle breathing. He seemed again to see
her, as he was wont in the years past, flitting about her diminutive
rose garden and calling to him to come and share her boundless joy.
"Come!" he heard her call. "Come, Padre dear, and see my beautiful
thoughts!" And then, so often, "Oh, Padre!" bounding into his arms,
"here is a beautiful thought that came to me to-day, and I caught it
and wouldn't let it go!" Lonely, isolated child, having nothing in
common with the children of her native heath, yet dwelling ever in a
world peopled with immaculate concepts!

Jose shook his head slowly. He thought of the day when he had
approached Rosendo with his great question. "Rosendo," he had said in
deep earnestness, "where, oh, where did Carmen get these ideas? Did
you teach them to her?"

"No, Padre," Rosendo had replied gravely. "When she was a little
thing, just learning to talk, she often asked about God. And one day I
told her that God was everywhere--what else could I say? _Bien_, a
strange light came into her eyes. And after that, Padre, she talked
continually about Him, and to Him. And she seemed to know Him well--so
well that she saw Him in every thing and every place. Padre, it is
very strange--very strange!"

No, it was not strange, Jose had thought, but beautifully natural. And
later, when he came to teach her, his constant endeavor had been to
impart his secular knowledge to the girl without endangering her
marvelous faith in her immanent God. In that he had succeeded, for in
that there had been no obstructing thoughts of self to overcome.

And now--

"For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will
I gather thee--"

The night shadows fled.