read were of the most
innocent and old-fashioned kind, and left her hardly less childlike than
before. This childlikeness, combined with her happy temperament, had
kept her singularly contented in her monotonous life. She had fed the
birds, taken care of the flowers, kept the chapel in order, helped in
light household work, embroidered, sung, and, as the Senora eight
years before had bade her do, said her prayers and pleased Father
Salvierderra.

By processes strangely unlike, she and Alessandro had both been kept
strangely free from thoughts of love and of marriage,--he by living in
the shadow, and she by living in the sun; his heart and thoughts filled
with perplexities and fears, hers filled by a placid routine of light
and easy tasks, and the outdoor pleasures of a child.

As the days went on, and Felipe still remained feeble, Alessandro
meditated a bold stroke. Each time that he went to Felipe's room to sing
or to play, he felt himself oppressed by the air. An hour of it made him
uncomfortable. The room was large, and had two windows, and the door was
never shut; yet the air seemed to Alessandro stifling.

"I should be as ill as the Senor Felipe, if I had to stay in that room,
and a bed is a weakening thing, enough to pull the strongest man down,"
said Alessandro to Juan Can one day. "Do you think I should anger them
if I asked them to let me bring Senor Felipe out to the veranda and put
him on a bed of my making? I'd wager my head I'd put him on his feet in
a week."

"And if you did that, you might ask the Senora for the half of the
estate, and get it, lad," replied Juan, Seeing the hot blood darkening
in Alessandro's face at his words, he hastened to add, "Do not be so
hot-blooded. I meant not that you would ask any reward for doing it; I
was only thinking what joy it would be to the Senora to see Senor Felipe
on his feet again. It has often crossed my thoughts that if he did not
get up from this sickness the Senora would not be long behind him. It is
but for him that she lives. And who would have the estate in that case,
I have never been able to find out."

"Would it not be the Senorita?" asked Alessandro.

Juan Can laughed an ugly laugh. "Ha, ha! Let the Senora hear you say
that!" he said. "Faith, it will be little the Senorita gets more
than enough for her bread, may be, out of the Moreno estate. Hark ye,
Alessandro; if you will not tell, I will tell you the story of the
Senorita. You know she is not