At the thought of her mother Etta’s tears came fast; but at this moment the Governor of St. Catherine himself appeared in the garden, and Etta, being afraid to be seen crying, dried her tears and stooped down to play with Felipa’s little dog, so as not to show her red eyes. When she looked up again the sunshine had returned to her bonnie-looking face. The Marquis Don Estevan del Campo was a small thin-looking man, who had long suffered from a liver complaint, and in consequence his whole nature seemed to be changed. From a determined, clever administrator he had become peevish, undecided, and ill-tempered; and the men under him hardly knew how to obey his orders, which were often very contradictory. To-day he walked towards Carlo, with a troubled expression on his face, and on the way he took occasion to find fault with a slave who was watering the flower-beds. The slave trembled, as he was bidden in a very imperious fashion to be quicker about his work. Carlo came to meet his father, doffing his hat in the courtly fashion of a young Spanish noble. ’What are you doing here, children?’ the Marquis said. ’Is not this your hour of study?’ ’You have forgotten, my father, that it is a holiday to-day; and I was coming to ask if Felipa and Etta might not come down to the bay with me and have a row in my canoe.’ The Marquis looked up quickly. ’No, no: there must be no rowing to-day; I have set workmen to repair the bridge, and you had best keep at home.’ ’Then we will go to the Orange Grove,’ said Felipa, coming up and putting her hand on her father’s arm, ’and Etta and I will pick some of the sweetest fruit for your dessert this evening.’ ’As you like, Felipa; but do not go far, and take Catalina and some of the slaves with you, for I hear several of the wild dogs have been seen in this neighbourhood. Anyhow, you will not have very long before sunset.’ ’I will let the girls go alone, then,’ said Carlo, ’and come with you, father.’ And so saying the Marquis and his son walked away, whilst the girls with an escort of slaves entered the forest and went down the mountain side. This forest was not, however, such a one as could be found in England. Here the pleasant breeze played among the leaves of a huge fan palm with leaf-stalks ten feet long and fans twelve feet broad; next to it might be found a groo-groo or coco palm, and bananas and plantains; and below these giant trees of the tropics were lovely shrubs, covered with flowers of every hue and shape, round which flitted great orange butterflies larger than any we can see in our colder climate; and Etta with her English blood and active nature was never tired of chasing them, though now and then a little afraid of meeting with snakes.