ght Alessandro. "The saints will
not let him die;" and Alessandro also prayed. But the oppression of the
scene was too much for him. Laying his hand on the low window-sill, he
vaulted over it, saying to Ramona, who turned her head at the sound,
"I will not go away, Senorita, I will be close under the window, if he
awakes."

Once in the open air, he drew a long breath, and gazed bewilderedly
about him, like one just recovering consciousness after a faint. Then
he threw himself on the ground under the window, and lay looking up into
the sky. Capitan came up, and with a low whine stretched himself out at
full length by his side. The dog knew as well as any other one of the
house that danger and anguish were there.

One hour passed, two, three; still no sound from Felipe's room.
Alessandro rose, and looked in at the window. The Father and the Senora
had not changed their attitudes; their lips were yet moving in prayer.
But Ramona had yielded to her fatigue; slipped from her knees into a
sitting posture, with her head leaning against the post of the bedstead,
and fallen asleep. Her face was swollen and discolored by weeping, and
heavy circles under her eyes told how tired she was. For three days and
nights she had scarcely rested, so constant were the demands on her.
Between Felipe's illness and Juan Can's, there was not a moment without
something to be done, or some perplexing question to be settled, and
above all, and through all, the terrible sorrow. Ramona was broken down
with grief at the thought of Felipe's death. She had never known till
she saw him lying there delirious, and as she in her inexperience
thought, dying, how her whole life was entwined with his. But now, at
the very thought of what it would be to live without him, her heart
sickened. "When he is buried, I will ask Father Salvierderra to take
me away. I never can live here alone," she said to herself, never for a
moment perceiving that the word "alone" was a strange one to have come
into her mind in the connection. The thought of the Senora did not enter
into her imaginations of the future which so smote her with terror. In
the Senora's presence, Ramona always felt herself alone.

Alessandro stood at the window, his arms folded, leaning on the sill,
his eyes fixed on Ramona's face and form. To any other than a lover's
eyes she had not looked beautiful now; but to Alessandro she looked more
beautiful than the picture of Santa Barbara on the wall beyond.