o call her, Carlos,--already I
love her, already she tends me as a bird tends her young. Ah, Carlos,
you will not neglect Chico? I leave him as a sacred legacy. The men
implored me so. They said the bird had brought them good fortune once,
and would be their salvation again; I had not the heart to take him from
them. You will see that they do not feed him too much? Already he has
had a fit of illness from too much kindness on the part of our faithful
soldiers. Thank you! and have no thought of me, my brother; all will be
well with me. Return to your glorious duty, son of Cuba. It may be that
even here, in this peaceful spot, it may be given to your Rita to serve
the mother we both adore. _Adios_, Carlos! Heaven be with thee!"

Carlos, who was of a practical turn of mind, was always uncomfortable
when Rita spread her rhetorical wings. He did not see why she could not
speak plain English. But he kissed her affectionately, heartily glad
that he could leave her content with her surroundings; and with a
cordial farewell to the good people of the house, he rode away,
followed by his clanking orderlies, leading the horse Rita had ridden.

While all this had been going on, Manuela had been arranging her
mistress's things; shaking out the crumpled dresses, brushing off the
bits of grass and broken straw that clung to hem and ruffle, mementoes
of the days in camp. Manuela sighed over these relics, and shook her
head mournfully.

"Poor Pepe!" she said. "If only he does not fall into a fever from
grief! Ah, love is a terrible thing! _Dios_! what a rent in the
senorita's serge skirt! A paralysis on the brambles in that place! yet
it was a good place. At least there was life. One heard voices, neighing
of horses, jingling of stirrups. Here we shall grow into two young
cabbages beside that old one, my senorita and her poor Manuela. Ah, life
is very sad!"

Here Manuela chanced to look out of the window, and saw a handsome
Creole boy leading a horse to water in the courtyard. Instantly her
face lighted up. She flew to the looking-glass, and was arranging her
hair with passionate eagerness, when the door opened, and Rita entered,
followed by their kind hostess. Manuela started, then turned to drop a
demure courtsey. "I was examining the glass," she explained, "to see if
it was fit for the senorita to use. These common mirrors, you
understand, they draw the countenance this way, that way,--" she
expressed her meaning in vivid pantomim