ce yawned nervously, Aunt Viney thought they had better go to bed.

But Dick did not sleep. The beautiful face beamed out again from the
darkness of his room; the light that glimmered through his deep-set
curtainless windows had an odd trick of bringing out certain hanging
articles, or pieces of furniture, into a resemblance to a mantled
figure. The deep, velvety eyes, fringed with long brown lashes, again
looked into his with amused, childlike curiosity. He scouted the harsh
criticisms of Aunt Viney, even while he shrank from proving to her her
mistake in the quality of his mysterious visitant. Of course she was
a lady--far superior to any of her race whom he had yet met. Yet how
should he find WHO she was? His pride and a certain chivalry forbade his
questioning the servants--before whom it was the rule of the
household to avoid all reference to their neighbors. He would make the
acquaintance of the old padre--perhaps HE might talk. He would ride
early along the trail in the direction of the nearest rancho,--Don Jose
Amador's,--a thing he had hitherto studiously refrained from doing. It
was three miles away. She must have come that distance, but not ALONE.
Doubtless she had kept her duenna in waiting in the road. Perhaps it
was she who had frightened Cecily. Had Cecily told ALL she had seen? Her
embarrassed manner certainly suggested more than she had told. He felt
himself turning hot with an indefinite uneasiness. Then he tried to
compose himself. After all, it was a thing of the past. The fair unknown
had bribed the duenna for once, no doubt--had satisfied her girlish
curiosity--she would not come again! But this thought brought with
it such a sudden sense of utter desolation, a deprivation so new and
startling, that it frightened him. Was his head turned by the witcheries
of some black-eyed schoolgirl whom he had seen but once? Or--he felt his
cheeks glowing in the darkness--was it really a case of love at first
sight, and she herself had been impelled by the same yearning that now
possessed him? A delicious satisfaction followed, that left a smile on
his lips as if it had been a kiss. He knew now why he had so strangely
hesitated with Cecily. He had never really loved her--he had never known
what love was till now!

He was up early the next morning, skimming the plain on the back of
"Chu Chu," before the hacienda was stirring. He did not want any one to
suspect his destination, and it was even with a sense of guil