When they were tired roaming about and making inquiries about this, that, and the other thing, they settled down in comfortable deck-chairs to talk about the future with their respective husbands. Dolores and Jack were returning to Tlatonac shortly, so had but the same life to look forward to; but Eulalia was secretly dismayed at the prospect of being an English lady. "Querido!" she said to Philip, looking at him over the top of her big black fan, "I cannot talk your tongue. And your English ladies! I hear they are so cold. And your climate. Oh, Felipe, I fear your climate." "Who told you all these nice things, Eulalia?" asked Philip, smiling. "Don Pedro." "My dear girl, you must not believe what Peter says. He doesn't know a thing, except what relates to beetles. You are learning to talk English very quickly, and as to the English ladies--they will all fall in love with you." "And the climate of England," added Jack, wickedly, "is the best in the world." "No!" replied Philip, laughing, "I cannot conscientiously say that. But neither Eulalia nor myself will stay much in England. We shall travel." Eulalia clapped her hands with glee on hearing this delightful proposal, and Dolores settled the future course of such travelling. "Wherever you may go, Señor Felipe," she said smiling, "forget not that Juan and myself dwell in Tlatonac, and shall expect you both once a year." "More or less!" cried Jack, lazily. "Come in a year, Philip, and you will see how Cholacaca is going ahead. I will have that railway to Acauhtzin ready before you know where you are. All those little forest towns will soon be in communication with the outside world----" "And Totatzine?" "Ah, Totatzine has lost its mysterious charm of the unknown. I'll turn it into a resort for invalids, or a Central American Monte Carlo. Where Huitzilopochtli was worshipped, future generations will adore the goddess of play." "At that rate, you will still have victims offered at the shrine," said Philip, grimly; "but, after all, Jack, it was a pity we lost the opal." "Can it not be found again?" asked Dolores, who deeply regretted the vanished jewel. Jack shook his head. "I am afraid not. Xuarez threw it into the torrent. Heaven only knows in what profound depths it now lies. Perhaps it is best so. While it was on earth, it caused nothing but trouble, from the time it was in the possession of Montezuma, to the death of Xuarez." "Now it is lost, I suppose the superstition will die out!" "Superstition dies hard. All kinds of legends will grow up about that famous gem. It will still be remembered for many years, the more especially as Tlatonac is still, and ever shall be, the City of the Opal." "And Dolores is still the guardian of the opal," said Eulalia, pensively. "A guardian of a stone that has now no existence," replied Dolores, laughing; "but, after all, I had rather the jewel was lost than my Juan."