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evening, to have nothing else to do but walk in the garden and listen to the sighing breeze, instead of singing and dancing in a _tertulia_! Oh, it is wearisome--very, very wearisome, I declare. We are here, like the captive princesses in an Eastern romance, which I commenced reading last year, but which I have not yet finished. Santa Virgen! I see a cloud of dust upon the horizon at last--a horseman! _Que clicha_! (what happiness!)" "A horseman!--what is the colour of his steed?" inquired Gertrudis, suddenly aroused. "Ha--ha! As I live his horse is a mule--what a pity it was not some knight-errant! but I have heard that these fine gentry no longer exist." Gertrudis again sighed. "Ah! I can distinguish him now," continued Marianita. "It is a priest who rides the mule. Well, a priest is better than nobody--especially if he can play as well on the mandolin as the last one that travelled this way, and stayed two days with us. He! He is coming on a gallop--that's not a bad sign. But no! he has a very grave, demure look. Ah! he sees me; he is waving a salute. Well, I must go down and kiss his hand, I suppose." Saying these words, the young Creole--whose education taught her that it was her duty to kiss the hand of every priest who came to the hacienda-- pursed up her pretty rose-coloured lips in a saucy mocking fashion. "Come, Gertrudis!" continued she; "come along with me. He is just by the entrance gate!" "Do you see no one upon the plain?" inquired Gertrudis, not appearing to trouble herself about the arrival of the priest. "No other horseman-- Don Fernando, for instance?" "Ah, yes!" answered Marianita, once more looking from the window. "Don Fernando transformed into a mule-driver, who is forcing his _recua_ into a gallop, as if he wished the loaded animals to run a race with one another! Why, the muleteer is making for the hacienda, as well as the priest, and galloping like him, too! What on earth can be the matter with the people? One would think that they had taken leave of their senses!" The clanging of bolts and creaking hinges announced the opening of the great gate; and this, followed by a confused clatter of hoof-strokes, told that the mule-driver with his train of animals was also about to receive the hospitality of the hacienda. This circumstance, contrary to all usage, somewhat surprised the young girls, who were wondering why the house was being thus turned into an ho
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