that I was now on a fair way to recovery,
and must as soon as possible hurry my departure; whereupon, without
naming any reason, he took snuff and looked at me sideways. I did not
affect ignorance; I knew he must have seen Olalla. 'Sir,' said I, 'you
know that I do not ask in wantonness. What of that family?'

He said they were very unfortunate; that it seemed a declining race, and
that they were very poor and had been much neglected.

'But she has not,' I said. 'Thanks, doubtless, to yourself, she is
instructed and wise beyond the use of women.'

'Yes,' he said; 'the Senorita is well-informed. But the family has been
neglected.'

'The mother?' I queried.

'Yes, the mother too,' said the Padre, taking snuff. 'But Felipe is a
well-intentioned lad.'

'The mother is odd?' I asked.

'Very odd,' replied the priest.

'I think, sir, we beat about the bush,' said I. 'You must know more of
my affairs than you allow. You must know my curiosity to be justified on
many grounds. Will you not be frank with me?'

'My son,' said the old gentleman, 'I will be very frank with you on
matters within my competence; on those of which I know nothing it does
not require much discretion to be silent. I will not fence with you, I
take your meaning perfectly; and what can I say, but that we are all in
God's hands, and that His ways are not as our ways? I have even advised
with my superiors in the church, but they, too, were dumb. It is a great
mystery.'

'Is she mad?' I asked.

'I will answer you according to my belief. She is not,' returned the
Padre, 'or she was not. When she was young--God help me, I fear I
neglected that wild lamb--she was surely sane; and yet, although it did
not run to such heights, the same strain was already notable; it had been
so before her in her father, ay, and before him, and this inclined me,
perhaps, to think too lightly of it. But these things go on growing, not
only in the individual but in the race.'

'When she was young,' I began, and my voice failed me for a moment, and
it was only with a great effort that I was able to add, 'was she like
Olalla?'

'Now God forbid!' exclaimed the Padre. 'God forbid that any man should
think so slightingly of my favourite penitent. No, no; the Senorita (but
for her beauty, which I wish most honestly she had less of) has not a
hair's resemblance to what her mother was at the same age. I could not
bear to have you think so; though, Heaven knows