As the years go on they bring many changes--changes that come as naturally as the seasons--that tend as naturally to anticipated growth and decay--that scarcely startle the subjects of them, till a lengthened-out period of time discloses their vitality and extent. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, ten years do not seem very destructive to life. The woman at eighteen, and twenty-eight, if changed, is usually ripened and improved; the man at thirty, finer and more mature than he was at twenty. But when this same period is placed to women and men who are either approaching fifty, or have passed it, the change is distinctly felt. It was even confessed by the Senora one exquisite morning in the beginning of March, though the sun was shining warmly, and the flowers blooming, and the birds singing, and all nature rejoicing, as though it was the first season of creation. “I am far from being as gay and strong as I wish to be, Roberto,” she, said; “and today, consider what a company there is coming! And if General Houston is to be added to it, I shall be as weary as I shall be happy.” “He is the simplest of men; a cup of coffee, a bit of steak--” “SAN BLAS! That is how you talk! But is, it possible to receive him like a common mortal? He is a hero, and, besides that, among hidalgos de casa Solar” (gentlemen of known property)-- “Well, then, you have servants, Maria, my dear one.” “Servants! Bah! Of what use are they, Roberto, since they also have got hold of American ideas?” “Isabel and Antonia will be here.” “Let me only enumerate to you, Roberto. Thomas and his wife and four children arrived last night. You may at this moment hear the little Maria crying. I dare say Pepita is washing the child, and using soap which is very disagreeable. I have always admired the wife of Thomas, but I think she is too fond of her own way with the children. I give her advices which she does not take.” “They are her own children, dearest.” “Holy Maria! They are also my own grandchildren.” “Well, well, we must remember that Abbie is a little Puritan. She believes in bringing up children strictly, and it is good; for Thomas would spoil them. As for Isabel’s boys--” “God be blessed! Isabel’s boys are entirely charming. They have been corrected at my own knee. There are not more beautifully behaved boys in the christened world.” “And Antonia’s little Christina?” “She is already an angel. Ah, Roberto! If I had only died when I was as innocent as that dear one!” “I am thankful you did not die, Maria. How dark my life would have been without you!” “Beloved, then I am glad I am not in the kingdom of heaven; though, if one dies like Christina, one escapes purgatory. Roberto, when I rise I am very stiff: I think, indeed, I have some rheumatism.” “That is not unlikely; and also Maria, you have now some years.” “Let that be confessed; but the good God knows that I lost all my youth in that awful flight of ‘thirty-six.”