"Many fields--the church, the little ranch he has picked up, and the game of _monte_ or _malilla_. He is the new sort of priest they send these days from Catalonia. No one in San Juan confesses now until Padre Sanchez comes past. If the church wins, the Mission will be blown down all the same, so long while some one pay four bits a load for brick. All is much changed. Father Sanchez is another kind--a holy man and of God." Alvara lifted his sombrero reverently. "The vaqueros coming with the band of horses from the beach soon," he observed. "We will go to the corrals, and help you to forget the girl--no?" "I'm not so anxious to forget, I reckon--the girl is only a sort of dream girl. This trip was not so much to forget a girl as to--you remember Teddy, my half-brother?" "Don Teddy? Sure--he was the life of the valley when he came to San Juan." "Yes. Well, Teddy's married; he has married the woman who, you said, had the face of some angel." "Not Angela, the senora who is Don Eduardo's English cousin?" The other nodded his head grimly. "But--" the old man stared at him sharply, and then suddenly recovered himself. "Teddy says his wife wants to come down here while he is in Mexico," grunted Bryton. "What the devil can I do with her if she comes now?" "You are a relative now--is it not so?" asked the old man, with an affectionate smile. "She is your sister." "Sister be--" If he meant blessed, he did not look it as he tramped the veranda. "I start just the same for the south ranch to-morrow. If she comes, she can go to Mac's tavern, or to the Mission with the ghosts!" "That would not be good to do," said Alvara seriously. "The wife of your brother must come to my house. Teresa, the widow of Miguel, is here; her English is not anything, but it is good that your sister have a lady with her in the house. Teresa, she feel very bad. Don Teddy's wife was once a widow; she will understand." [Illustration: DONA ANGELA] "Will it make many changes in the business--his death?" asked Bryton. "It will lose the ranches more quickly to the English and the Americans," stated the older man. "Rafael will have all the money now, and--it is good that he gets married quick. The girl--she is Estevan's daughter--she likes no English--so they say." "Oh!--Estevan's daughter--Estevan's! I heard a queer story of that name once--a queer story!" "He left when the Americanos came to California. Always he fought against the Americanos. He was a strong soldier, and he die there in Mexico, and all his money is for the girl if she marry; for the convent if she not marry at all." "It was another Estevan," said Keith. "It was a story of an old Aztec temple that would make your hair curl! Might have been a relation of your soldier Estevan." "There may be the same name in Mexico, but Felipe Estevan had no brothers."