I be?"

"Then"--Rita's eyes flashed, and she bent nearer her hostess, and spoke
low. "Then you are not at heart _pacificos_, Marm Prudence. On the
surface, I understand, I comprehend, it is necessary; but _au fond_, in
your secret hearts, you are with us; you are Cubans. Is it not so? It
must be so!"

"Oh, land, yes!" said Marm Prudence, composedly. "I'm an American, you
see; and husband, he's a Cuban five generations back. We don't have no
dealin's with the Gringos, more than we're obleeged to. Livin' right
close t' the road as we do, we can't let out the way we feel, but I
guess there's mighty few Mambis about here but knows where to come when
they want things. There ain't many so bold as your brother, to come in
open daylight, but come night, they're often as thick as bats about the
garden here. There! I have to shoo' em off sometimes; yet I like to
have 'em, too."

Rita's face glowed with excitement. "Oh, Marm Prudence," she cried; "how
glorious! Oh, what fortune, what joy, to be here with you! We will work
together; we will toil; our blood shall flow in fountains, if it is
needed. Embrace me, mother of Cuba!"

Marm Prudence put on her spectacles, and surveyed the excited girl with
some anxiety.

"Let me feel your pult, dear!" she said, soothingly. "You got a touch o'
sun, like as not, riding in that heat this morning. Now there's no call
to get worked up, or talk about blood-sheddin'. Blood-sheddin' ain't in
our line, yours nor mine, nor husband's neither. Fur as doin' goes,
we're all _pacificos_ here, Miss Margaritty, and you mustn't forget
that. Just wait a minute, and I'll go and git you a cup of my balm-tea;
'tis real steadyin' to the nerves, and I expect yours is strung up some
with all you've be'n through."

Rita protested that she was perfectly well, and not at all excited; but
she submitted, and drank the balm-tea meekly, as it was cold and
refreshing.

"It is my ardent nature!" she explained. "It is the fire of my
patriotism which consumes me. Do you not feel it, Marm Prudence,
oftentimes, like a flame in your bosom?"

No, Marm Prudence was not aware that she did. Things took folks
different, she said, placidly. She had an aunt when she was a little
gal, that used to have spasms reg'lar every time she heard the baker's
cart. Some thought she had had hopes of the baker before he married a
widow woman, but you couldn't always account for these things. What a
pretty braid Rita was getting!

[Illu