ith white flowers. And as he looked a voice broke through the fragrant
barrier singing a careless, broken bit of song--

"White, white is the jasmine flower;
Let its stars light thee."

"It is Pepita," said Jose. "She always sings when she is pleased. It is
always a good sign."

If her singing was a sign of pleasure, then she must have been enjoying
her life greatly in the days that came afterward, for she was singing
continually. As she went about her work there was always the shadow of
a smile on her lips and in her eyes, as if her thoughts amused her. And
she was in such gay spirits that Jose was enchanted. He had only one
vague source of trouble: all the rest had turned out so well! It had all
occurred just as he had dreamed, but scarcely dared to hope, in those
by-gone days when he had been hard-worked and ill-fed and ill-clad. He
had a good place, and what seemed by comparison incredibly good wages.
He had the nice little house, and Pepita had holiday garments as gay and
pretty as any other girl, and looked, when dressed in them, gayer and
ten times prettier than all the rest.

That was what he had looked forward to most of all, and his end was
attained. And when he walked out with her, all the young fellows who
were allowed to come near--and many who were not--fell in love. Yes, it
was true; he saw it himself and heard it on every side. It would take
the fingers of both hands to count those who were frankly enamoured,
beginning with Carlos and Manuel. But it was at this point that the
vague trouble came in. And it was Pepita herself who caused it, by her
treatment of her adorers. To say that she dealt out scorn to them would
be to say too much; she simply dealt out nothing--and less. They might
come and go; they might follow and gaze and sigh--she did not even
deign to seem to know they did so, unless by chance one became too
pertinacious, and then she merely transfixed him with a soft, cruelly
smiling eye. "She will not marry any of them," said Jose to Jovita in
bewilderment.

"That will come soon enough," said Jovita. "She is pretty, and it makes
her a little fool--all girls are like that; but one of these days you
may look out--it will be all over. She is just the one to blaze up all
at once."

"I do not think she is a fool like other girls," said Jose, with
gravity. "But she does not seem to care about love; she does not seem
to know. She is not even sorry for them when they are miserable.