t so."

And the delicious, languid, semi-tropic summer came hovering over the
valley. The apricots turned golden, the peaches glowed, the grapes
filled and hardened, like opaque emeralds hung thick under the canopied
vines. The garden was a shade brown, and the roses had all fallen; but
there were lilies, and orange-blossoms, and poppies, and carnations, and
geraniums in the pots, and musk,--oh, yes, ever and always musk. It was
like an enchanter's spell, the knack the Senora had of forever keeping
relays of musk to bloom all the year; and it was still more like an
enchanter's spell, that Felipe would never confess that he hated it.'
But the bees liked it, and the humming-birds,--the butterflies also;
and the air was full of them. The veranda was a quieter place now as the
season's noon grew near. The linnets were all nesting, and the finches
and the canaries too; and the Senora spent hours, every day, tirelessly
feeding the mothers. The vines had all grown and spread out to their
thickest; no need any longer of the gay blanket Alessandro had pinned up
that first morning to keep the sun off Felipe's head.

What was the odds between a to-day and a to-morrow in such a spot
as this? "To-morrow," said Felipe, "I will speak to my mother," and
"to-morrow," and "to-morrow;" but he did not.

There was one close observer of these pleasant veranda days that Felipe
knew nothing about. That was Margarita. As the girl came and went about
her household tasks, she was always on the watch for Alessandro, on the
watch for Ramona. She was biding her time. Just what shape her revenge
was going to take, she did not know. It was no use plotting. It must be
as it fell out; but that the hour and the way for her revenge would come
she never doubted.

When she saw the group on the veranda, as she often did, all listening
to Alessandro's violin, or to his singing, Alessandro himself now at his
ease and free in the circle, as if he had been there always, her anger
was almost beyond bounds.

"Oh, ho! like a member of the family; quite so!" she sneered. "It is new
times when a head shepherd spends his time with the ladies of the house,
and sits in their presence like a guest who is invited! We shall see; we
shall see what comes of all this!" And she knew not which she hated the
more of the two, Alessandro or Ramona.

Since the day of the scene at the artichoke-field she had never spoken
to Alessandro, and had avoided, so far as was possible,