The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-07

Back of the Early Morning" there is i a delightful bit of old garden, which had l once been apart of the cathedral grounds. 1 There was an old fountain, no longer in repair, and a stone bench under pome- 1 granite tree. Near by was an image of | the Virgin, green with age, on whose l breast two birds had built their nest. l When the birds had built Don Gabriel had wished to thear down the nest but Car ! mencita had begged her father to let i it stay. So it had remained and each l year the birds had brought forth their l brood safely on the sheltering bosom Of 1 the stone Virgin.
 It was into this delightful old garden
 that Bentley came the next day to meet l Carmencta It was during the hour of 1 the siesta when, as Don Gabriel used to
 say, all Mexico slept except Americans
 and mosquitoes. She brought her guitar
 and sang to him, not the coarse songs
 she sang in the cantna, but old Spanish ballads with endless verses and foolish 1 little love songs. Bentley sat beside her,
 rolling innumerable cigarettes and mak- l ing love to her between the verses. And whne she tired of singing she, too, l lighted cigarette and they blew smoke 1 in one another's face, kissing each other 1 in the clouds which enveloped them. They
 were very happy sitting there on the
 stone bench under the pomegranate tree. l M DOn t1dDIltl Sltpl, Ol tui otb 1 the mosquitoes for disturbing him. Had he known what was going on in his gar
 den he might have cursed the American
 as well. ai#Sl 1 After that Bentley came often to the old garden back of the Early Morning."
 and at the end of the summer Carmen
 cita had promised to be his wife. They were to be married at Christ time. 1 It was on an afternoon late in August | into the garden ] found Carmencta bending over the old I fountain. He approached her unawares,
 and looking over her shoulder, into the l water, misquoted:
 Thy mirror says thy face is fair. l And well I know thy mirror tells thee | true.
 ] "Ah. how pretty she said, attempting I to laugh. Then she became downcast.
 But the mirror speaks falsely this time, my dear, for see my eyes are read with | weeping.
 l sThen you are trying to see if your 1 tears will not turn to pearls as in the song of the mermaid you sang to me yester- l day.
 But she only shook her head How can you jest sop she asked responsibility. T but stopped to bathe my eyes"
 He took her in his arms. "Tell me- he
 said, what has happened to change my little Felice into my Lady Dolores.
 "Ah, my dear, I am very unhappy. One of my birds has broken wing You | know, it lived with it's mate on the breast of the Virgin, and although l have prayed | her to save 1t. l fear 1t will die. And l to think that but yesterday 1t could fly | so high and sng-ah, so sweetly And | now it can but lie on the ground and futter it's poor wing. And that is not all. 1 my dear 'Tls an evil omen; feel 1t. The | Virgin would never let it be hurt were 1 it not for a warning" She began to trem- | ble. My dear" she said, q am afraid.' l Bentley pressed her to him and kissed | away the tears, calling her all the en- !! dearng names he could think of, and l when she had ealmed herself little he asked her to sing "Carmeta." It was his l favorite song and she always liked to sing | 1t for him. After a while she forget all ] her fears and laughed and chatted as 1 merriiy as ever. But after he had left i her that afternoon she went to look at the 1 crippled bird in the soft nest she had made for 1t on the ground, and a little | sighed escaped her. "The Virgin would I never let it be hurt were it not for a I warning" she said
 Bentley had scarcely reached his hotel when an Indian boy crossed the courtyard ] holding a yellow envelope in his hand. Una telegram para el senor," he said. 1 It was a telegram from his uncle an I nouncing his fathers death and urging his return home at once.
 The next day he started for the United l States Carmencita watched him from the | ton of the trail until he disappeared in the valley below He had promised to be back before Christmas. After all, 1t was only few months.
 Carmencia walked slowly back to the