"Will you go home with me and be my guest for all this spring and summer?"

The joy that beamed in the girl's face told how gladly she would go. But
it faded quickly and she shook her head sadly, as she answered:

"I can not. My father would not allow it. He will not even let me go
back to school. He says that I am an Indian, and that I must stay in
Acoma and be an Indian."

When Mrs. Coolidge saw that look of eager desire leap into Barbara's eyes
she determined that the thing should be brought to pass and set herself
to the task of overcoming old Ambrosio's determination that his daughter
should never again leave Acoma. It was not an easy thing to do, but
Colonel Kate finally accomplished it, on condition that Barbara should
return whenever he wished her to do so.

During the remaining days of Lent, dressmakers were busy with Barbara's
wardrobe; and Mrs. Coolidge carefully schooled her in a hundred little
particulars of manner and deportment. And meanwhile the Select of Santa
Fé waited with impatience for a first view of the Indian girl. For
Colonel Kate was too shrewd a manager to discount the sensation she
intended to produce, and so she kept Barbara at home, away from the front
doors and windows, and out of sight of curious callers. In the meantime
she diplomatically helped on the growing interest and excitement, and
lost no opportunity of arousing curiosity about her _protégée_.

And at last, when Barbara had been three weeks in her home, and no one
outside her own household had even seen the girl's face; when the town
was full of rumors and chatter and all manner of romantic stories about
the Indian girl; when everybody was wondering what she could be like, and