hat
innocent leaf, she revolved round it, and then fled from it at the top
of her speed.

The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden.
Unfortunately, at the angle of the fence stood a beautiful Madrono-tree,
brilliant with its scarlet berries, and endeared to me as Consuelo's
favorite haunt, under whose protecting shade I had more than once avowed
my youthful passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu caught sight of it,
and with a succession of spirited bounds instantly made for it. In
another moment I was beneath it, and Chu Chu shot like a rocket into the
air. I had barely time to withdraw my feet from the stirrups, to throw
up one arm to protect my glazed sombrero and grasp an overhanging branch
with the other, before Chu Chu darted off. But to my consternation, as
I gained a secure perch on the tree, and looked about me, I saw
her--instead of running away--quietly trot through the open gate into
Saltello's garden.

Need I say that it was to the beneficent Enriquez that I again owed my
salvation? Scarcely a moment elapsed before his bland voice rose in
a concentrated whisper from the corner of the garden below me. He had
divined the dreadful truth!

"For the love of God, collect to yourself many kinds of thees berry! All
you can! Your full arms round! Rest tranquil. Leave to your ole oncle to
make for you a delicate exposure. At the instant!"

He was gone again. I gathered, wonderingly, a few of the larger clusters
of parti-colored fruit and patiently waited. Presently he reappeared,
and with him the lovely Consuelo--her dear eyes filled with an adorable
anxiety.

"Yes," continued Enriquez to his sister, with a confidential lowering
of tone but great distinctness of utterance, "it is ever so with the
American! He will ever make FIRST the salutation of the flower or the
fruit, picked to himself by his own hand, to the lady where he call. It
is the custom of the American hidalgo! My God--what will you? I make it
not--it is so! Without doubt he is in this instant doing thees thing.
That is why he have let go his horse to precede him here; it is always
the etiquette to offer these things on the feet. Ah! Behold! it is
he!--Don Francisco! Even now he will descend from thees tree! Ah! You
make the blush, little sister (archly)! I will retire! I am discreet;
two is not company for the one! I make tracks! I am gone!"

How far Consuelo entirely believed and trusted her ingenious brother
I do not know, nor ev