It might have been both, but for my knowledge of "society" as it exists in the City of the Angels. From the insight I had obtained, I could too readily believe, that the handsome Captain Moreno was _playing false with a pair of sisters_! Only for an instant was I permitted to indulge in the unworthy suspicion. But the certainty that succeeded it, was equally painful to reflect upon: for I left the Alameda with the knowledge that Francisco Moreno had one love; and she the lady who had driven past in her _carretela_! I obtained the information through a dialogue heard accidentally behind me. Two men, whom I had not noticed before, had been sharing with me the shade of the pepper-tree. One was plainly a Poblano; the other, by his dress, might have passed for a haciendado of the _tierra caliente_-- perhaps a "Yucateco" on his way to the capital. Small as was the note surreptitiously delivered, and rapid its transition from hand to hand-- both these men had observed the little episode. The Poblano seemed to treat it as a thing of course. It caused surprise to the stranger; whose habiliments, though not without some richness, scarce concealed an air of rusticity. "Who is she?" inquired the astonished provincial. "The daughter of one of our _ricos_" replied the Poblano. "His name is Don Eusebio Villa-Senor. No doubt you have heard of him?" "Oh, yes. We know him in Yucatan. He's got a sugar estate near Sisal; though he don't come much among us. But who's the fortunate individual so likely to become proprietor of that pretty plantation? Such an intelligent fellow would make it pay; which, _por Dios_! is more than I can do with mine." "Doubtful enough whether captain Moreno could do so either--if he had the chance of becoming its owner. By all accounts he's not much given to accumulating cash--unless over the _monte_ table. Independently of that, he's not likely to come in for any property belonging to Don Eusebio Villa-Senor." "Well, without knowing much of your city habits," remarked the Yucateco, "I'd say he has a fair chance of becoming the owner of Don Eusebio's daughter. A Campeachy girl who'd do, what she has just done, would be considered as marked for matrimony." "Ah!" rejoined the denizen of the angelic city, "you Yucatecos are a simple people: you leave your _muchachas_ free to do as they choose. In Puebla, if they don't obey the paternal mandate, they are inclosed within convents--of which we have no less than a dozen in our sainted city. I've heard say, that such is to be the fate of Dolores Villa-Senor--if she insist on marrying the man to whom you have just seen her handing that pretty epistle." "Dolores Villa-Senor?" I asked, springing forward, and rudely taking part in a conversation that so fearfully interested me. "_Dolores_ Villa-Senor? Do I understand you to say that _Dolores_ is the name of the lady just gone past in the carretela?"