"I never saw anything so serenely--arrogantly,
perhaps would be a truer description--triumphant
as your bearing when you walked down our humble
sala to-night. You looked like Caesar returned from
Gaul; but I suppose that all great conquests are
merely the sum of many small ones."

"I do not regard the friendship of so shrewd a
man as Father Abella a trifling conquest. And ac-
cording to yourself, dear senorita, it is essential to
the success of a mission upon which many lives and
my own honor depend."

"Is it really so serious?" she asked with a faint
sneer.

He drew himself up stiffly and his light eyes
glowed with anger. "It is a subject I never should
have thought of introducing at a festivity like this,"
he said suavely. "May I be permitted to compli-
ment you, senorita, upon your marvellous grace in
the contra-danza? It quite turned my head, and I
am delighted to hear that you will dance alone after
supper."

Her face had flushed hotly. She dropped her
eyes and her voice trembled as she replied: "You
humiliate me, senor, and I deserve it. I--my poor
Rosa told me something of her great tragedy while
dressing me, and for the moment other things