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