d the child
with surprising skill, swung him from north to south, then from east to
west, and with impetuous voice put the sacred questions: "Little
chicken, sweetie! rosebud! pink! do you want to be called Miguelito,
like your papa? Do you want to be called Enriquito like your uncle? Do
you want to be called Serafin after your aunt?"

A lugubrious silence followed these words. All eyes were fastened on the
young candidate, who, instead of showing a liking for any of the names
proposed, made it very clear, though in an inarticulate way, that he
could see no reason why, for a mere question of names, these
hypochondriacs should bother him so much.

"Do you see?" said Miguel.

"The reason is, he isn't in humor for laughing," protested Maximina,
very much dissatisfied. "_You_ won't laugh either when you are told to!
Besides, he must be hungry by this time. Give him to me! Give him to me!
Joy of my life! Sweetheart mine!"

And the child-mother snuggled her little son under the sheets, and put
him to her breast.

On the third day baptism took place. With the melancholy resignation
usually manifested by mothers in such circumstances, Maximina let them
carry her baby away.

"He is a Christian already, senorita," said the maid, taking possession
of him.

The young mother kissed him fondly, and pressed him to her heart,
saying, in a whisper, "Thou shan't be taken from me again, child of my
bosom!"

On the fifth day she was sitting up. In a week she was about the house;
in a fortnight she was out of doors as usual. Enrique and Julita were
the child's god-parents, and he was named after the former.

The pleasure which Miguel found in all these things was embittered by
the serious danger threatening his fortune. All the time this thought
haunted him to such a degree that it was a great effort for him to seem
happy in his wife's presence.

He wrote to the general, but he replied in such an ambiguous and
suspicious manner that it left no room for doubt that in this quarter no
help was to be expected. From that time he deliberately made up his mind
that his salvation depended on his election to Congress, in gaining
influence in the majority and with the ministers, and in making the best
of it at a given moment by getting from the reserve funds the money
which he had compromised.

But Eguiburu had already made him three or four more calls, and was
pressing him to guarantee the rest of the money; finally, after many
circu