slowly growing stern. Juan had not seen
it. His eyes had been turned away from her, looking down into the
upturned eager face of his favorite collie, who was leaping and
gambolling and barking at his feet.

"Down, Capitan, down!" he said in a fond tone, gently repulsing him;
"thou makest such a noise the Senora can hear nothing but thy voice."

"I heard only too distinctly, Juan Canito," said the Senora in a sweet
but icy tone. "It is not well for one servant to backbite another.
It gives me great grief to hear such words; and I hope when Father
Salvierderra comes, next month, you will not forget to confess this sin
of which you have been guilty in thus seeking to injure a fellow-being.
If Senor Felipe listens to you, the poor boy Luigo will be cast out
homeless on the world some day; and what sort of a deed would that be,
Juan Canito, for one Christian to do to another? I fear the Father will
give you penance, when he hears what you have said."

"Senora, it is not to harm the lad," Juan began, every fibre of his
faithful frame thrilling with a sense of the injustice of her reproach.

But the Senora had turned her back. Evidently she would hear no more
from him then. He stood watching her as she walked away, at her usual
slow pace, her head slightly bent forward, her rosary lifted in her left
hand, and the fingers of the right hand mechanically slipping the beads.

"Prayers, always prayers!" thought Juan to himself, as his eyes followed
her. "If they'll take one to heaven, the Senora'll go by the straight
road, that's sure! I'm sorry I vexed her. But what's a man to do, if
he's the interest of the place at heart, I'd like to know. Is he to
stand by, and see a lot of idle mooning louts run away with everything?
Ah, but it was an ill day for the estate when the General died,--an ill
day! an ill day! And they may scold me as much as they please, and set
me to confessing my sins to the Father; it's very well for them, they've
got me to look after matters. Senor Felipe will do well enough when he's
a man, maybe; but a boy like him! Bah!" And the old man stamped his
foot with a not wholly unreasonable irritation, at the false position in
which he felt himself put.

"Confess to Father Salvierderra, indeed!" he muttered aloud. "Ay, that
will I. He's a man of sense, if he is a priest,"--at which slip of the
tongue the pious Juan hastily crossed himself,--"and I'll ask him to
give me some good advice as to how I'm to manage