the most charming old gentleman I know. He is Padre
Antonio's great friend."

"Ah!" ejaculated the Captain as though relieved.

"I once spent a summer traveling in Europe with the Ortega family. But
here is your rose, Captain Forest. I almost believe you forgot it.
Horses are so much more interesting than flowers," and handing him the
rose, she was back again in the garden before he could thank her.

"_A Dios, Capitan_ Forest," she continued with the softest accent
imaginable, lingering unconsciously on his name as she paused on the
other side of the gate. Again the little fan opened, and looking back
over it with a bewitching smile and arched eyebrows and her head held
coquettishly on one side, she said as if to herself: "I wonder how long
he will keep it?"

His heart gave a great throb as he gazed upon that subtle, bewitching
vision before him, "Forever, Senorita!" he was about to reply, but she
was gone.

It might be argued that a woman of Chiquita's metal would not have shown
her hand thus lightly. Let his infernal beast bolt and trample the whole
town in the dust and himself in the bargain. If he wanted the rose, let
him come and get it; not a step would she move! Possibly, but let it not
be forgotten that she was in love--desperately in love; that the time
for quibbling had passed, that another woman equally fair would have
unhesitatingly waded through a river to deliver that rose to the Captain
had he asked for it. Destiny had placed Captain Forest in the saddle,
just as it had decreed that Don Felipe Ramirez should pass the remainder
of his days pursuing an illusive vision. If nature and convention now
swarmed at the Captain's saddle-bow, surely it was no fault of his. Had
he not burnt his last bridge, snapped his fingers in the face of the
world, and turned his back upon it and ridden forth in search of the
lost kingdom of Earth?

XIII

"The jade--coquetting openly on the highroad!" cried the Senora
furiously, stepping out from the shadow of the wall after the Captain
had disappeared down the road.

"Will she stop at nothing? It's true, she loves him! What would Don
Felipe do had he witnessed what she had just seen?" and she shuddered as
she paused breathlessly before the high iron gate, her cheeks aglow and
her eyes flashing with indignation. Cautiously pushing open the gate
which stood ajar, she paused for an instant on the inside, casting her
eyes nervously about her in search of Chiquita,