"I thought you said he went to the quinta after the fight at the Pasa Chico." "He did, but the next day he went outside, and has never been back. We expected to hear of him from Don Fausto, but no one knows where he has gone." "Oh, that is nothing! he is always disappearing like that, but he always turns up again. The old game, I suppose, some pair of shining black eyes." "But it is strange now when all the comandantes are in the city, and he is in command of a regiment." "Ah, Carlos, you don't understand those things; politics are everything to you, and if you see a pair of bright eyes you don't even notice what colour they are. When my uncle Gregorio sees a pair which smile on him he forgets everything. He always was that way, so they tell me." "And then, after looking at himself in those eyes for a month or so, he gets tired of them, and goes away, and never thinks of them any more," said Evaña. "Frankly, I cannot understand a man like that, yet I believe there are such men." "Of them there are many, but you are not one of them, Carlos, therefore you cannot understand my uncle. If you ever love it will be for all your life; you are a tyrant to every one else, but you would be a slave to a woman you loved." "Therefore I had better never love," replied Evaña; "man was not made to be slave to any, but to be lord over the whole earth." "But not lord over his own heart, Carlos, that is in no man's power. Proud as you are, your time will come." "Let me read you some more of the 'Estrella del Sur,'" said Evaña hastily. "I have it safe under my pillow, no one has seen it," replied Marcelino. "Ah! Carlos, if the English had only made war upon the Spaniards with these newspapers instead of with cannon-balls, then we could have received them as friends." "Be it then our work to teach the lesson they have failed to teach," replied Evaña. CHAPTER II THE EPISODE OF THE FAIR MAURICIA A fortnight passed, Marcelino gained strength rapidly, Don Alfonso pronounced him well enough to bear removal, and very readily acquiesced in the desire of Don Roderigo that he should pass his convalescence under another roof. A covered litter, carried by slaves and escorted by Don Carlos Evaña and Lieutenant Gordon, made its appearance at the quinta one fine morning in September. That night Marcelino slept under his father's roof and his pillow was smoothed for him by his mother's hand. The change did him good, a few days more and he was able to spend the afternoons on a sofa in his mother's sala. Little by little he learnt all the particulars of the struggle of the 5th and 6th July. The sad fate of Doña Dalmacia Navarro caused him deep sorrow, but on the whole he was surprised to learn the small extent of the loss suffered by his fellow-citizens, and his heart swelled with pride as anecdote after anecdote of their bravery and of their tender care for the victims of the fight, were poured into his willing ear.