The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-12-11
ID not the incorrigibility of his sub

ject.
Was il not spiritual weakness in him
to have resented SO sharply the girls
imputation that he wished TO make love
to her? He should have borne il as
Christians had even before now borne
slander and false testimony for their
faith. He might even have accepted it,
and let the triumph of her conversion in
the END prove his innocence. Or was
his purpose incompatible with that
sisterly affection he had so often
preached 10 the women of his flock? He
might have taken her hand, and called
her "Sister Pepita," even as he had
called Deborah SISTER" lie recalled
the fact that he had for an instant held
her struggling in his arms: he remem-
bered the thrill that the recollection
had caused him, and somehow it now
sent a burning blush across his face.
He hurried back into the house.
The next day thousand wild ideas
took the place of his former settled
resolution. He would seek the padre.
this custodian of the young girls soul;
he would convince him of his error, or
beseech him to give him an equal access
to her spirit! He would seek the uncle
of the girl, and work upon his feelings.
He would begin his missionary work
with Conception, and then enlist her
in the task of saving Pepita's soul. But
remembering the old woman's singular
conduct-by the light of Pepita's rev.
elation-he shrank from her question
ing glances. A dreadful suspicion that
she might have OWNED some secret im-
pelling power in his nature, TINT he had
not dreamed of himself, began to haunt
him.
Then for three or four days he re-
solved TO put the young girl from his
mind, trusting after the fashion of his
kind for some special revelation from
supreme source as an indication for his
conduct. This revelation presently oc.
CURED. as it is apt TO occur when
wanted.
One evening his heart lcaped at the
familiar sound of Pepita's guitar in
the distance. Whatever his ultimate
intention now, he hurriedly ran into
the garden. The sound came from
the former direction, but as he unhesi-
tatingly approached the mission wall
he could see that she was not upon il,
and as the notes of her guitar were
struck again, he knew that they came
from the other side. Bus the chords
were prelude TO one OF his own hymns,
and he stood entranced as her sweet,
child-like voice rose with the very
words that he had sung. The few de-
fects We're those of purely oral i'm
itation, the accents, even the slight re-
iteration OF the IS" were Pepita's own:
Cheeldren oof the Heavenly King.
As ye journey ossweetly s3ing;
Essing your great Redeemer's praise.
Glorioos is Hees works and ways.
- He WIS ttstetfHdea.-Her recollection
of the air and the words was the more
wonderful, for he remembered now tha,
he had only sung that particular hymn
once. But TO his still greater delight
and surprise her voice rose again in
the second verse, with touch of plain
tiveness that swelled his throat:
We are travelling home to God.
In the way our farzers trod.
They are happy now. and we
Soon their happiness shall see.
The simple, almost childish words
so childish that they might have been
the fitting creation of her own childish
lips-here died away with u sweep and
crash of the whole strings. Breathless
silence followed, in which Stephen Mas
terton could feel the beatings of his own
heart.
"Miss Ramirez" he called in a voice
that scarcely seemed his own. There
was no reply. "Pepita!" he repeated;
il was strangely like the accent of n
lover, but he no longer cared. Still
the singers voice was silent.
Then he ran swiftly beside the wall,
as he had seen her run, until he came
to the fissure. 1t was overgrown with
vines and brambles almost as impene-
trable as an abattis, but if she had
pierced it in her delicate Grape dress,
so would he! He brushed roughly
through. and found himself in glim-
mering aisle of pear trees close by
the white wall of the Mission church.
For a moment, in that intricate
tracery of ebony and ivory made by
the rising moon, he was dazzled, but
evidently his irruption into the or
chard had not been as 1.-THE and silent
as her own, for n figure In parti-col-,
ored dress suddenly started into activi-
~. and running from the wall began
70 course through the trees until il be-
came apparently part of that involved
pattern. Nothing daunted, however,
stephen Masterton pursued, his speed
increasing as he recognized the flounces
of Pepita's barred dress, but the young
Pirl had the advantage of knowing the
locality, and could evade her pursuer
by unsupported turns and doubles.
For some moments this fanciful syl-
van chase was kept up in perfect si-
lcnce: it might have been n woodland
lymph pursued by wandering shep-
herd. Masterton presently saw that
she was making towards a tiled roof
that was now visible as projecting over
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