ion
against your constant objections to everything in the world!"

"But I haven't opened my lips."

"That is the very thing; you object silently--which is much worse. I'm
not accustomed to people who object silently. Everybody here talks; why
don't you talk?"

This little dialogue went on apart, the others could not hear it.

"I do--when you give me an opportunity," Winthrop answered.

"I'll give you one now," responded Garda; "we'll go back to the house,
we'll go through the orange-walk as we came, and the others can follow
as _they_ came." Without waiting for reply, she went towards the garden
gate. Winthrop followed her; and then Carlos Mateo, stalking across the
open space, followed Winthrop. He followed him so closely that Winthrop
declared he could feel his beak on his back. When they reached the house
they paused; Carlos then took up his station a little apart, and stood
on one leg to rest himself, watching Winthrop meanwhile with a
suspicious eye.

Mrs. Thorne was crossing the level with the Rev. Mr. Moore. Following
them, at a little distance, came Dr. Kirby, with his hands behind him.
Manuel and Torres, forced to be companions a second time, formed the
rear-guard of the returning procession. But as it approached the house,
Manuel, raising his hat to Mrs. Thorne, turned away; he went down the
live-oak avenue to the river landing, where his skiff was waiting.
Manuel had his ideas, he did not care to be one of five. Torres, who
also had his ideas, and many more of them than Manuel had, was not
troubled by considerations of this sort; in his mind a Torres was never
one of five, or one of anything, but always a Torres, and alone. Left to
himself, he now took longer steps, passed the others, and came first to
the doorway where Garda was standing.

"Why do you always look so serious, Mr. Torres?" she said, in Spanish,
as he came up.

"It is of small consequence how I look, while the senorita herself
remains so beautiful," answered the young man, bowing ceremoniously.

"Isn't that pretty?" said Garda to Winthrop.

"Immensely so," replied that decorated personage.

"But he does not look half so serious as you look comical--with all
those brilliant flowers by the side of your immovable face," she went
on, breaking into a laugh.

"It is of small consequence how I look, seeing that the senorita herself
placed them where they are," answered Winthrop, in tolerable if rather
labored Spanish, turning with a hal