A thick India shawl hung over the window of Benicia's old room in her mother's house, shutting out the perfume of the hills. A carpet had been thrown on the floor, candles burned in the pretty gold candlesticks that had stood on the altar since Benicia's childhood. On the little brass bedstead lay Benicia, very pale and very pretty, her transparent skin faintly reflecting the pink of the satin coverlet. By the bed sat an old woman of the people. Her ragged white locks were bound about by a fillet of black silk; her face, dark as burnt umber, was seamed and lined like a withered prune; even her long broad nose was wrinkled; her dull eyes looked like mud-puddles; her big underlip was pursed up as if she had been speaking mincing words, and her chin was covered with a short white stubble. Over her coarse smock and gown she wore a black cotton reboso. In her arms she held an infant, muffled in a white lace mantilla. Doña Eustaquia came in and bent over the baby, her strong face alight with joy. "Didst thou ever nurse so beautiful a baby?" she demanded. The old woman grunted; she had heard that question before. "See how pink and smooth it is--not red and wrinkled like other babies! How becoming is that mantilla! No, she shall not be wrapped in blankets, cap, and shawls." "She catch cold, most likely," grunted the nurse. "In this weather? No; it is soft as midsummer. I cannot get cool. Ay, she looks like a rosebud lying in a fog-bank!" She touched the baby's cheek with her finger, then sat on the bed, beside her daughter. "And how dost thou feel, my little one? Thou wert a baby thyself but yesterday, and thou art not much more to-day." "I feel perfectly well, my mother, and--ay, Dios, so happy! Where is Edourdo?" "Of course! Always the husband! They are all alike! Hast thou not thy mother and thy baby?" "I adore you both, mamacita, but I want Edourdo. Where is he?" Her mother grimaced. "I suppose it is no use to protest. Well, my little one, I think he is at this moment on the hill with Lieutenant Ord." "Why did he not come to see me before he went out?" "He did, my daughter, but thou wert asleep. He kissed thee and stole away." "Where?" "Right there on your cheek, one inch below your eyelashes." "When will he return?" "Holy Mary! For dinner, surely, and that will be in an hour." "When can I get up?" "In another week. Thou art so well! I would not have thee draw too heavily on thy little strength. Another month and thou wilt not remember that thou hast been ill. Then we will go to the rancho, where thou and thy little one will have sun all day and no fog." "Have I not a good husband, mamacita?" "Yes; I love him like my own son. Had he been unkind to thee, I should have killed him with my own hands; but as he has his lips to thy little slipper, I forgive him for being an American." "And you no longer wish for a necklace of American ears! Oh, mamma!"