The Washington herald., 1919-10-25


TO exile: Il was their breath. their
meat and drink, and this particular
member of the clan thffved upon Il
quite as well as had the other john
nies and Michsels and Andys who
had .Journeyed to far shores. The
O'Reillys were audacious men. a bit
too needless of their own good, per-
haps; bit too lighthearted readily
to impress a grave world with their
varied abilities, but sterling men, for
all that, ambitious men. men with
lime.in their bones and possessed of
a high and ready chivalry that made
friends for them wherever their wan
ering feet strayed. Spain. France.
and the two Americans had welcomed
OReillys Of one sort or another: even
Cuba had the family. name written
large upon her scroll. so Johnnie, Of
New York and Matanzas, although
at first he felt himself stranger in
a strange land, was not so considered
by the Cubans.
"A dancing eye speaks every
language: a singing heart gathers its
own audience. Before the young Irish
American had more than bowling
acquaintance with the commonest
Spanish verbs he. had a calling ac-
quaintance with some of the most
exclusive people OF Matanzas. He
puzzled them. TO be sure, for they
could not fathom the reason for his
ever-bubbling gladness. but they
strove TO catch its secret. and. striv.
ing. they made friends with him
O'Reilly did not puzzle their daugh-
ters nearly so much: more than one
aristocratic senoria felt sure that she
quite understood the tall, blond
stranger with the laughing eyes, or
could understand him II he gave her
half chance, and so. as had been
the case with other O'ReIllys in other
lands. Johnnie's exile became no exile
at all. He had adjusted himself
serenely TO his surroundings when
Rosa Napna returned from school
but with her coming. away went all
his complacency. His contentment
vanished; he experienced a total
change In his opinions. his hopes. and
his ambitions.
He discovered, for example, that
Matanzas was by no means the out
of-the-way place he had considered
1t; on the contrary. after meeting
Rosa once by accident. twice by
design. and three times by mutual
arrangement. 1t had dawned upon him
that this was the chief city of Cuba
II not. perhaps. the hub around which
the whole world revolved; certainly
II was the most agreeable OF all
cities, since IT contained everything
that was necessary for mans hap
piness. Yet, despite the thrill OF his
awakening, O'Reilly was not at all
pleased with himself. for. as 1t hap
pened, there was another girl back
home. and during his first year of
loneliness he had written to her more
freely and frequently than any man
on such a salary as his had q right
to do.
O'ReillY laid no claims to literary
gifts: nevertheless. II seemed to him.
as he looked back upon it. that his
pen must have been dipped in magic
and in moonlight, for the girl had ex-
pressed an eager willingness to share
his interesting economic problems.
and in fact was waiting for him TO
give her the legal right. Inasmuch as
her father was O'Reilly's Company"
II may be seen that Rosa Varona's
home coming seriously complicated
matters. not only from a sentimental.
but from a business standpoint
1t was in a thoughtful mood that
he rode up La Cumbre toward the
Cuinta de Esteban. late on the after
noon OF Don Mario's visit. Instead OF
going directly to the house as the
merchant had done, O'Reilly turned
off from the road. and. after tether-
ing his horse in a cluster of guaya
bushes, proceeded on foot He did not
like Dona Isabel nor did Dona lsa-
bel like him. Moreover. he had a par
ticular reason for avoiding her today
Just inside the Earona premises he
paused an instant to admire the outlook
The quinta commanded an excellent
view Of the Yumuri, on the one hand.
and of the town and harbor on the
other; no one ever climbed the hill
from the city to gaze over into the
hidden valley without feeling a pleas
urable surprise at finding II still
of perfect beauty as unsubstantiai.
evanescent; but the Yumuri never
changed. and in that lay its suprem-
est wonder.
Through what had once been we'll
tended grounds. O'Reilly made his
way to a sort of sunken garden which
in spite of neslect. still remained the
most charming nook upon the place;
and there he sat down to wait for
Rosa. The hollow was effectually
screened from view by a growth OF