e,
combined with Margarita's reports, gave the superstitious fair ground
for believing that something had gone mysteriously wrong, and that the
Devil was in a fair way to get his soul, which was very hard for the old
man, in addition to all the rest he had to bear. The only alleviation he
had for his torments, was in having his fellow-servants, men and women,
drop in, sit by his pallet, and chat with him, telling him all that was
going on; and when by degrees they dropped off, coming more and more
seldom, and one by one leaving off coming altogether, it was the one
drop that overflowed his cup of misery; and he turned his face to the
wall, left off grumbling, and spoke only when he must.

This phase frightened Margarita even more than the first. Now, she
thought, surely the dumb terror and remorse of one who belongs to the
Devil had seized him, and her hands trembled as she went through the
needful ministrations for him each day. Three months, at least, the
doctor, who had come from Ventura to set the leg, had said he must lie
still in bed and be thus tended. "Three months!" sighed Margarita. "If I
be not dead or gone crazy myself before the end of that be come!"

The Senora was too busy with Felipe to pay attention or to give thought
to Juan. Felipe's fainting had been the symptom and beginning of a
fierce relapse of the fever, and he was lying in his bed, tossing and
raving in delirium, always about the wool.

"Throw them faster, faster! That's a good fleece; five pounds more; a
round ton in those bales. Juan! Alessandro! Captain!--Jesus, how this
sun burns my head!"

Several times he had called "Alessandro" so earnestly, that Father
Salvierderra advised bringing Alessandro into the room, to see if by any
chance there might have been something in his mind that he wished to say
to him. But when Alessandro stood by the bedside, Felipe gazed at
him vacantly, as he did at all the others, still repeating, however,
"Alessandro! Alessandro!"

"I think perhaps he wants Alessandro to play on his violin," sobbed out
Ramona. "He was telling me how beautifully Alessandro played, and said
he would have him up on the veranda in the evening to play to us."

"We might try it," said Father Salvierderra. "Have you your violin here,
Alessandro?"

"Alas, no, Father," replied Alessandro, "I did not bring it."

"Perhaps it would do him good it you were to sing, then," said Ramona.
"He was speaking of your voice also."

"Oh, try,