, and his money is
lost. I carried the curate fruit from my garden. My garden was full
of flowers, and I had two sons. I had a garden, I tended my flowers,
and I had two sons."

And leaving the leper she moved away, singing:

"I had a garden and flowers. I had two sons, a garden and flowers."

"What have you done for that poor woman?" Maria asked Ibarra.

"Nothing yet," he replied, somewhat confused. "But don't be troubled;
the curate has promised to aid me."

As they spoke, a soldier came dragging Sisa back, rather than leading
her. She was resisting.

"Where are you taking her? What has she done?" asked Ibarra.

"What has she done? Didn't you hear the noise she made?" said the
guardian of public tranquillity.

The leper took up his basket and vanished. Maria Clara asked to
go home. She had lost all her gayety. Her sadness increased when,
arrived at her door, her fiance refused to go in.

"It must be so to-night," he said as he bade her good-by.

Maria, mounting the steps, thought how tiresome were fete days,
when one must receive so many strangers.

The next evening a little perfumed note came to Ibarra by the hand
of Andeng, Maria's foster sister.

"Crisostomo, for a whole day I have not seen you. They tell
me you are ill. I have lighted two candles and prayed for
you. I'm so tired of being asked to play and dance. I did not
know there were so many tiresome people in the world. If Father
Damaso had not tried to amuse me with stories, I should have
left them all and gone away to sleep. Write me how you are,
and if I shall send papa to see you. I send you Andeng now to
make your tea; she will do it better than your servants. If
you don't come to-morrow, I shall not go to the ceremony.

Maria Clara."

XXIV.

IN THE CHURCH.

The orchestras sounded the reveille at the first rays of the sun,
waking with joyous airs the tired inhabitants of the pueblo.

It was the last day of the fete--indeed, the fete itself. Every one
expected much more than on the eve, when the Brothers of the Sacred
Rosary had had their sermon and procession; for the Brothers of the
Third Order were more numerous, and counted on humiliating their
rivals. The Chinese candle merchants had reaped a rich harvest.

Everybody put on his gala dress; all the jewels came out of their
coffers; the fops and sporting men wore rows of diamond buttons on
their shirt fronts, heavy gold chains,