"Mr. Darrell has never expressed his kind sympathy to me, how was I to presume he felt it?"

"The presumption would have been mine had I expressed all I felt," said he, taking off his glove, which action she rightly understood to mean that he wished to shake hands with her.

She extended her hand, and he clasped it in his. That ineffable thrill which he felt for the first time in his life when he lifted her in his arms was now felt again. It coursed through his veins with the warm blood that rushed to his heart.

Neither one took any notice of what Victoriano and Alice were saying until they heard him say:

"That's all right. He is going to be married soon, then he'll be on the shelf. That's a comfort."

"Who will be on the shelf?" Mercedes asked.

"Gabriel, of course; and I am glad of it, as Miss Alice has just coolly told me that he is the handsomest man she ever saw, forgetting that Clarence is here, and poor me, too."

"Present company is always excepted," Alice argued; "and the rule, I suppose, applies now, though I cannot well see whether it does or not, you being in the dark."

"That is so. Come out of the shadow." Clarence suggested.

"I can't now. I feel too abashed," Victoriano replied.

"He will soon recover. His fits of diffidence don't last long," said Mercedes.

"So he is diffident now?" asked Alice, laughing.

"Yes; that is why I don't want you to tell me that Gabriel is handsome; it abashes me too much."

"He is a good reasoner, too, you see that, Miss Darrell; though by moonlight his logic shines but dimly. Come, we must not keep Miss Darrell longer, since they will not come in," said Mercedes.

"I think you might stop and take supper with us," said Victoriano.

"O, no, thank you," Clarence answered. "We came in advance to light the lamps, and attracted by the music, took the liberty of coming over the road."

"I am sorry. Then you must have heard me sing. Bah! Mercedes, it is your fault," said Victoriano.

"Don't say that. You sing very well, only the song is very plaintive, and the better it is sung, the sadder is its melody," Clarence said.

"It must have seemed like a lugubrious welcome to Miss Alice. I shall never sing that song again," said Victoriano, emphatically. "See if I do."

"I am glad to hear you say that, for you are constantly singing it,"

Mercedes said.

"I hope it will not be a prophetic coincidence that you should sing it as I came," said Alice, and as she spoke the supper bell rang.

"That is the prophecy I meant," said Victoriano, and all laughed, glad of the timely turn thus given to the conversation.

"With this assurance we must go home comforted," said Clarence, and all bade each other good night.

The lamps were lighted, and the windows and doors opened. The Darrell house looked as if there was an illumination for a national celebration.

"Let us go and see how the house looks from the front outside, all lighted up," said Clarence.

They went out to look at it from the garden.

"How could you build such a nice house, Clary, and how could papa allow it?" Alice said.

"Hush! You must never speak about the cost of this house or its furniture. I have made lots of money in stocks, and can afford it, but father thinks stock gambling is next to robbery."

Mercedes and Victoriano remained for a few moments standing by the gate, watching the phaeton.

"By Jove! but isn't she sweet! She has just left me deaf and dumb!" said Victoriano, as the phaeton disappeared down the hill.

"Perhaps you are deaf, since you don't hear the supper bell ringing again, but as for being dumb I am sure the greatest beauty on earth couldn't produce that effect."

"But I tell you I am, and I will go to see her and tell her so to-morrow," said he, following his sister to the supper room.

"You will do nothing of the kind. The idea!"

"Why not, pray? Clarence told me to call soon."

"Yes, but he supposed you would have the good taste to wait at least two or three days."

"Three days! Three days! Not if I am alive!"

"What is that about being alive?" asked Rosario.

"Let him tell you," Mercedes replied.

"That I am going to see that sweet little Alice Darrell to-morrow, dead or alive," explained Victoriano.

"Who will be dead or alive?" asked Carlota.

"I, of course! What a question?" Victoriano exclaimed.

"As you could not go there if you were dead, I thought you meant that you were to go and see her in that insensible state," said Carlota.

Victoriano looked at his sister reproachfully, saying:

"How mean to talk so about that sweet girl."

"It was to correct you from expressing yourself in that style of yours, mixing up things and ideas so incongruously. You ought to take care not to confuse things so absurdly," Dona Josefa said.

"Why don't you talk like Gabriel? He always uses good language-in Spanish or in English," Carlota added.

"Bother Gabriel, and Gabriel, and Gabriel! Everybody throws him at my teeth," said Victoriano, beginning to eat with very good appetite.

"The operation don't hurt your teeth, though," said Rosario, "to judge by the very effective manner in which you use them."

"Of course, I do, because I am an amiable good fellow, who bears nobody ill-will, even towards his harassing sisters, and much praised elder brother, who is hoisted up to the skies a million times a day for my special edification and good example. It is a good thing, I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, a very fortunate thing, that I am so amiable, and Gabriel so good a fellow, or else I would have punched his head into calf's head-jelly, twice a day, many times."