es which last
from three to five days and nights, and at its conclusion she had been
christened "Maria," subsequently changed by force of habit to "Marie."

Late that evening, while they were seated side-by-side on a bamboo
bench beside of her home, tapping the toes of their wooden-soled
slippers on the hard ground, and indulging in a wandering lovers'
conversation, Marie said to him (calling him affectionately by his
first name), "Rolando, when did you first decide to postpone our
wedding day?"

"Well, I'll tell you how it was," answered he, meditatingly. "The
thought of serving my country had been lingering on my mind all
last summer--in fact, ever since the insurrection first broke out in
the spring of 1896. You know I intended coming down to see you last
Christmas, but I couldn't get away. That night I walked the floor
all night in our home at Malolos, debating in my mind whether we
had better get married in March, as we had planned, or if it would
not be wiser and more manly for me to go to war, take chances on
getting back alive and postpone our wedding day until after the war
is over. Toward morning, I decided that it was my duty to become a
soldier; so I called my father and mother, got an early breakfast,
bade them goodby and started for Malabon, which was Aguinaldo's
headquarters, and enlisted. He was glad to see me. You know, he and
I attended school together for one year at Hongkong. Well, Aguinaldo
at once commissioned me a spy and assigned me to very important duty."

"My God!" interrupted Marie, "you are not on that duty now, are you,
Rolando?"

Dimiguez arose. "Marie," said he firmly, "I must be off."

"But won't you tell me where you are going and what task lies before
you?" pleaded Marie, as she threw both arms about his neck and began to
sob, "I'll never tell a living soul, so help me God, but I must know!"

"A spy never tells his plans to anyone, Marie," said Dimiguez
slowly. "He takes his orders from his chief, plays his part; and
if he gets caught, he refuses to speak and dies without a murmur,
like a man. Good night, Marie, I must be off; duty lies before me."

Marie cried herself to sleep.

The next morning she started down town, as usual, for the market place,
with her bamboo basket filled with bananas, sitting on her head,
and a cigarette in her mouth. She had only gone a block when she met
a neighbor girl, one of her chums of equal years to her own, who was
a chamber-maid in the Germ