The Crusade of the Excelsior

liness. A tropical luxuriance, that had perpetuated itself year after year, until it was half suffocated in its own overgrowth and strangled with its own beauty, spread over a v

eless creepers; the dry dust of its decaying leaves and branches mingled

like the arms of some graceful semaphore, and then as suddenly stopped. Almost at the same moment a white curtain, listlessly hanging from a canopied balcony of the Alcalde's house, began to exhibit a like rhythmical and regular agita

zy b

nor

am comi

ut Dona

no more Do

duenna, who

is no d

ha

gue, idiot boy!"

time seemed interminable. Impatiently looking up and down, he at last saw Dona Isabel at a distance, quietly and u

elp you,"

er little br

re a few leaves of som

d and kisse

some lo

remain in a glass with aguardiente; you shall drink him with a straw. My s

the hand of the young girl. "He's pleasanter, and, on the whole, more wildly intoxicating th

d her black eyes

n, the custom of the Americans? Is it not, t

nas in my country. But who h

ntinued Dona Isabel, without replying; "that any caballero and senorita shall see each othe

es," sa

equently, and he is informed and impressed much. He will truly have that you will come of the corridor, and not the gard

Boston eye of Mrs. Brimmer, instead of under the discreet and mercenarily

"We will go into the corridor,

Dona Isabe

garden in the fashion of YOUR

"that's what the Comandante wil

ung diplomatist's waist, and they walked on

esently, "that Mrs. Brimmer has

l you? It is my brothe

suddenly, "doesn't he know t

ed her lashes in

her of God! my brother is discreet. He is not a mania

ke to this statement elicited a sharp

uddenly, "is not that a

t? T

. To attend a

ope

nt of her tiny slipper on the gravel. "Then it is the young girl t

l, y

-by,

or two, then quickly rescaling the wall, dropped into the lane outside, followed it to the gateway of the casa, and entered the patio as Dona Isabel decorously advanced from a

shabille of the Spanish toilet-not without a certain languid grace on the part of Mrs. Brimmer, whose easy contour lent itself to the stayless bodice; or a certain bashful, youthful na

hat your experience of American society might have caused you to misinterpret the habitual reserve of the Castilian," she continued with the air of being already an alien of her own country, "and I should be only too happy to

moment tolerate a heresy so alarming. It was simply wildly impossible. F

en. They become too absorbed in their business. They forget their duty to our sex in their selfish devotion to affairs in which we are debarred from join

in business, but we can see that he was equally successful in his relations to a

the innuendo with in

s but not the material results of trade. That he is not a business man-and a successful one-my position here at the present time is a sufficient proof," she said triumph

the humiliation of Brace and the subjugation of Don Ramon. But, unlike most of her sex, she was wise

w him the garden and let him select for himself the herbs he requires for that dreadful American drink; Miss

a Isabel, as they left the corridor together. "I g

cretary, Manuel, shall marry Mees Chubb, and that the Doctor shall marry my sister. But she knows not that Manuel-listen so that you shall get sick at your heart and swallow your moustachio!-that Manuel loves the beautiful

for a stroll in the garden, which was now beginning to recover from the still heat of mid-day. This left Don Ramon and Mrs. Brimmer alone in the cor

distance. Mrs. Brimmer's eyes, in the shadow of her fan, were becoming faintly phosphorescent. Don R

alier, your countryman, revives your anxiety for your home.

ndon the hospitality of your house, Don Ramon. Without looking upon myself as a widow, or as indefinitely separated from Mr. Brimmer, the few words let fall by Mr. Brace show me what might be the feelings of my countrymen on the subject. However charming and considerate your hospitality has been-and I do not deny that it has b

the costume, and even the fan she still kept shading her faintly glowing eyes, that the man bef

here-this hous

essary," s

said hurriedly. "Hear me, Dona Barbara-

dropping her feet from the hammock, and sitti

ook upon her at once

She will come at night; she will depart in the morning, and no one else shall know. It has ever been that she brings no one to Todos Santos, that she takes no one from Todos Santos. That is the law.

stness and melancholy simplicity of this grown-up man without a pang. Even this superior woman ex

that child, towards whom I feel as a sister." A slight suffusion glistened under her pretty brown lashes. "If anything should happen to her, I would never forgive myself; if I should be the unfortunate means of severing any ties that SHE may have formed, I could never look her in the face again. Of course, I can well understand that our presence here must be onerous to you, and that you naturally look forward to any sacrifice-even that of the interests

her bosom with a certain prim, automatic gesture, as if it had been the starched kerchief of some remote Puritan ancestress. With her arms still unconsciously crossed, she stooped rigidly, pi

r the logic of her reasoning, he nevertheless comprehended the sudden change in her manner, her voice, and the frigid resurrection of a nature he had neither known nor suspected. He looked blank

with sympathy, with fellowship, with regret. She had barely spoken of him at all, and then rather as an attractive factor in her own fascinations than a bar to a free indulgence in them. He was as little in her way as-his children. With what grace she had adapted herself to his-Don Ramon's-life-she who frankly confessed she had no sympathy with her husband's! With what languid enthusiasm she had taken up the customs of HIS country, while deploring the habits of her own! With what goddess-like indifference she had borne this interval of waiting! And yet this woman-who

t had shut out the heat of day. She was not there. He passed the open door of her room; it was empty. At the end of the passage a faint light s

ad she effectively evaded contact with the others by leaving the garden through the little gate in the wall that entered the Mission enclosure? It was partly open, as if some one had just passed through. He followed, took a few steps, and stopped abruptly. In the shadow of one of the old pear-trees a man and woman were standing. An impulse of wild jealousy seize

at Acapulco; you will rejoin your husband in good time; you will be happy, my child; you will f

Mrs. Markham's reply. Would she answer the Comandante as Dona Barb

e biggest compliment I ever received, and the biggest risk that any man-except one-ever ran for me. But as the man who ran that bigger risk isn't here to speak for himself, and generally trusts his wife