rious, being in a strange place
and surrounded by string people; but at the shadow of a question, he
shrank back, lowering and dangerous. Then it was that, for a fraction of
a second, this rough lad might have been the brother of the lady in the
frame. But these humours were swift to pass; and the resemblance died
along with them.

In these first days I saw nothing of any one but Felipe, unless the
portrait is to be counted; and since the lad was plainly of weak mind,
and had moments of passion, it may be wondered that I bore his dangerous
neighbourhood with equanimity. As a matter of fact, it was for some time
irksome; but it happened before long that I obtained over him so complete
a mastery as set my disquietude at rest.

It fell in this way. He was by nature slothful, and much of a vagabond,
and yet he kept by the house, and not only waited upon my wants, but
laboured every day in the garden or small farm to the south of the
residencia. Here he would be joined by the peasant whom I had seen on
the night of my arrival, and who dwelt at the far end of the enclosure,
about half a mile away, in a rude out-house; but it was plain to me that,
of these two, it was Felipe who did most; and though I would sometimes
see him throw down his spade and go to sleep among the very plants he had
been digging, his constancy and energy were admirable in themselves, and
still more so since I was well assured they were foreign to his
disposition and the fruit of an ungrateful effort. But while I admired,
I wondered what had called forth in a lad so shuttle-witted this enduring
sense of duty. How was it sustained? I asked myself, and to what length
did it prevail over his instincts? The priest was possibly his inspirer;
but the priest came one day to the residencia. I saw him both come and
go after an interval of close upon an hour, from a knoll where I was
sketching, and all that time Felipe continued to labour undisturbed in
the garden.

At last, in a very unworthy spirit, I determined to debauch the lad from
his good resolutions, and, way-laying him at the gate, easily pursuaded
him to join me in a ramble. It was a fine day, and the woods to which I
led him were green and pleasant and sweet-smelling and alive with the hum
of insects. Here he discovered himself in a fresh character, mounting up
to heights of gaiety that abashed me, and displaying an energy and grace
of movement that delighted the eye. He leaped, he ran r