"Rafael! Your mother--she is here!" "My mother?" "On the hill--her carriage--a man brings the news." "Damnation! Coming here--now? And my head--Yes, it's true, Fernando; I was drunk. Help me to think! Make them clear all this away!" and he pointed to the tables and the dice and the cards on the floor. "Por Dios, how my head swims! And my mother is no fool--she will see! Think, Fernando! Help me to plan something. And you, Marta, let yourself not be seen!" The frightened girl was only too glad to slip away, while the rest of the group stripped the rooms of evidences of the night's orgy. "Mount a horse and ride to the beach," decided Fernando. "You will be gone on business, to see about--eh--to see if the vessel for hides has come in. Make yourself decent, and I will send a messenger after you. Don't be too easily found--you are likely to be drunker in an hour than you are now." "Curse the brandy! And Bryton was to come back to see me about--oh, God knows what! But don't let my mother see him--an accursed heretic Americano, you know! Dios! If I could only sleep for an hour!" Fernando fairly pushed him out at the door. "Take a sea bath; drink black coffee; get out of sight while I receive the bride!" Then, after the door was closed on the groom-elect, he took a quick survey of the room. "That is right, open all the windows. Some one cut lilies--the white ones--quick! Hide this fan for Merced. Light those candles on the Virgin's shrine, and put the lilies there and on the table. Whose pipe is this under the edge of our lady's lace robe? It smells vilely--take it away! Where is the key of the chest of the _donas_? Here it is in the chest, and that is unlocked--only Rafael could do that. Let us hope he has not let Merced try on the wedding-dress! Are there no more flowers? Get some for the room of the senorita. Tell some one to make French coffee. Manuel, put out the light." Dolores and Madalena ran through the open door, breathless. "Fernando, she is here--the Senora Arteaga, and--" "Already! Aunt Teresa told us to run and help; she will come also. Don Rafael?" "Has ridden to the harbor." "More likely to bed," remarked Madalena, skeptically. "Senorita!" "Sh--h!" whispered Dolores, with lifted hand. "The carriage; they are in the plaza!" She rushed out, and the others followed. Teresa was there greeting Dona Luisa; but all fell suddenly silent as they noticed the gray-white of the old face, and the frail figure as she descended from the carriage with the help of Fernando Mendez and Ana--his cousin's widow. Fernando cast one glance at the girl who sat her horse and glanced over their heads for the face she did not see. A wizened old Indian woman alighted from a cart and came to her and touched her foot on the stirrup. "It is your new land, little mistress," she said, in a tongue not understood by the others, "the land of your handsome lover."