Julio Murillo shook hands with the three men, asked them to be seated, and then turned his attention to the little girl, who stood modestly by the door waiting to tell the object of her call. “How many posies must I buy from my little flower girl this morning?” said Julio. “One,” replied the child, “if it so pleases your honor, for it will please thy mother, Señora Suzzan Carriles, for you to do so.” “Bless the dear one,” cried Marriet Motuble, “we will buy every posy she has. Come, gentlemen, now is the opportunity to show your gratitude to science through this child, who is the living proof of our friend’s investigations. Come, gentlemen, who will bid on this child’s posies? One dollar for each flower. One dollar once, one dollar twice——” “Three dollars for each flower,” cried a voice from Guillermo Gonzales’ reception-room. Julio Murillo greeted the bidder as he stepped into the little study, with great joy. He was accompanied by the scientist, Guillermo Gonzales, who was no stranger to the three men, they wasted no time to show their good will and great respect for him. The flower-girl curtesied to the two distinguished men. She was something more than a simple child to them. She was the living proof of their scientific investigations. The fair auctioneer continued crying: “Three dollars for each posy once; three dollars for each posy twice; three dollars for each posy——” “Four dollars I bid!” cried the blear-eyed, spotted faced, bald-headed, dissipated looking man. “Four dollars, I say. _Four_ dollars, I say.” The pretty child made a curtesy to the fair auctioneer, and cried: “No, no, señorita, take not the money of so bad a man.” Prostrating herself before the great benefactor of his people, she continued: “Your Honor, shield me from so bad a man! I would go hungry and sleep _en la calle_ sooner than live well, from the _dinero_ of so bad a man. _Tengo hambre, tengo hambre!_ But let me die for want of food; let me die. I cannot look in the face of so vile a man.” The child turned her face, so full of fright and abhorrence, toward the man she loathed, and as she cried in a voice full of agony: “Go, great demon, go!” she fainted away. The great good man to whom she so piteously appealed, lifted her tenderly in his arms and laid her on the couch in Julio Murillo’s little study. The fair auctioneer followed and devoted her time immediately to restoring the child, aided by Julio Murillo. The Governor returned to the reception-room and placing himself in front of the repulsive stranger, said: “Give an account of the strange actions of the little girl toward you. If you have done that fair child, who is modesty and purity itself, an injury, it must be repaired at once, and on your bended knees at that. Explain matters, sir!” “I do not know the child,” began the man. “That is not the case,” quickly responded Guillermo Gonzales and Mr. Niksab in one voice.