The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-12-10
"; ait was in praise of the Lord!"


"Oh!" she said, with frightened
look, slightly edging away from the
wall. At secure distance she stopped.
'"rhen you are a soldier, Don Esteban?"
"No!"
"Then for what you silj Il am n SOL
dier of the Lord and you will make de
in His army?' oh, yes, you have said"
She gathered up her guitar tightly
under her arm, shook her small finger
at him gravely and said: "You are
hoombog, Don Esteban; good a night"
and began TO glide away.
zone moment, Miss-Miss Ramirez"
called Masterton. "I-that is, you
you have-forgotten your rose" ne
added, feebly, holding up the flower.
She halted.
"Ah, yes; he have drop, you have pick
him up, he is yours. j have drop, you
have pick me up, but am not yours.
Good a night, Commandante Don Es-
tebani"
With light laugh she ran along be-
side the wall for little distance, sud
denly leaped up and disappeared in one
of the largest gaps in its ruined and
helpless structure. Stephen Masterton
gazed after her stupidity, still holding
the rose in his hand. Then he threw IL
away and reentered his home.
Lighting his candle, he undressed
himself, prayed fervently-so feryently
that all remembrance of the idle, fool
ish incident was wiped from his mind
and went to bed. He slept well and
dreamlessly. The next morning when
his thoughts recurred to the previous
night this seemed TO him n token that
he had not deviated from his spiritual
integrity; it did not occur TO him that
the thought itself was tacit suspicion.
So his feet quite easily sought the
garden again in the early sunshine,
even to the wall where she had stood.
But he had not taken into account the
vivifying freshness of the morning, the
renewed promise of life and resurrcc-
ton in the pulsing air andpotent sun
light. and as he stood there he seemed
TO see the figure of the young girl again
leaning against the wall in all the
charm of her irrepressble and innocent
youth. More than that, he found the
whole scene reenacting itself before
him; the nebulous drapery half hidden
in the foliage, the cry and tie fall; the
momentary soft contact of the girls
figure against hrs own, the clinging
arms around his neck, the brush AMI
fragrance of her flounces--all this came
back to him with n strength he had not
felt when it occurred.
He was turning hurriedly away when
his eyes fell upon the yellow rose still
lying in rHe debris where he had
thrown it--but still pure, fresh and un-
faded. He picked it up again with n
singular fancy that it was the girl her
self and carried il into the house.
AS he placed il half shyly i'm glass on
his table, a wonderful thought occurred
TO him. Was not the episode of last
night a'special providence? Was not
that young girl, wayward and child
like, a mere neophyte in her idolatrous
religion, as yet unsteeped in sloth and
ignorance, presented to him as brand
to be snatched from the burning? Was
not this the opportunity of conversion
he had longed for? The chance of eX-
ercising his gifts of eXhortation. that
he had been hiding in the napkin of
solitude and seclusion? Nay, was not
all this predestined? His illness, his
consequent exile TO this land of false
gods-th.s contiguity to the mission
was not all this part of a supremely
ordered plan for the girls salvation
and was he not elected and ordained for
that service? Nay, more, was not the
girl herself mere UNCONSCIOUS instru-
ment in che hands of higher power;
was not her voluntary attempts TO ac-
company him in his devotional exer-
else a vague stirring of that prcdes.
tined force within her? Was not even
that wantonness and friyolity contrast
ed with her childishness-whichE he had
at first misunderstood--th STRINGS of
the flesh and the spirit, and was he TO
abandon her in that struggle of good
and evil?
lie lifted his bowed head that had
been resting on his arm before the lit
tie flower on the table-as if ii were n
a fash OF resolve in his
blue eyes. The wrinkled Conception
coming TO her duties in the morning
scarcely recognized her gloomily alb
stracted master in this trans'igured
man. lie looked ten years younger.
She met his greeting, and the Few di-
rect inquiries that his new resolve en-
nbled him to make more freely, with
some information-whicha a later talk
with the shopkeeper, who had a fuller
English vocabulary, confirmed in de-
tail.
"Yes! truly this was a niece of the
gardener, who lived with her
uncle in the ruined wing of the old
Preside. She had taken her first com
munion four years ago. Ah, yes, she
was great musician and could play
on the organ. And the guitar, ah, yes
of certainty. She was gay and flirtcd
with the Caballcros, young and old, but
she cared not for any"
Whatever satisfaction this latter |
statement gave Masterton, he believed !
- v,ns hnpougc tho oheap.n Of ouv Dis