caring for the result, or prescribing to myself
any rules for what I should do or say on the
occasion. It was no easy matter, however, even
to let Luisa know what I was scheming. I
made several fruitless attempts, and was at last
fain to have recourse to the old expedient of
bribing the lady's maid. Terésa, who waited
on the señoritas in that capacity, was an Indian
girl, not quite thirteen years old, but with a
discretion beyond her years. She was a light
brunette, with well-chiselled features, a very
fairy in the symmetry of her tiny figure. She
soon understood that I wanted a talk with her,
so, under pretence of bringing me a cup of coffee,
slipped into my room. I broke ground by giving
her a couple of reals, and then produced a note
I had written to Luisa; but, before entrusting
her with it, I began to sound her as to the
possibility of obtaining a tête-à-tête with her
mistress. She was in the act of suggesting
a plan to me when we heard steps coming
along the corridor. The slow, heavy tread assured
me it was my host. Terésa ejaculated, 'El amo,'
'My master,' skipped behind a mampára, or
screen, which hid my washing apparatus, and
so turned my bed-room into a sitting-room;
for as for the hammock, that is used as much
in the day as at night by South Americans.

"'You did not come to breakfast this morning.
Out buying mules, I suppose?' said Rivas,
entering. 'Well, I have come to smoke a
cigar with you, and to give you a little advice
for your march. You may trust me, for I
have had some experience. I marched with
Bolivar from Ocana in 1813, and have been out
with Paez in the Apúre more than once.'
With these words the worthy señor seated
himself, and went on, interminably as it seemed
to me, recounting his adventures, smoking, and
prosing to an extent that wound up my feelings
to a pitch of desperation. At last I interrupted
a long story by declaring that I was obliged
to go out to look at a horse I thought of
buying. It was an unlucky excuse, for Rivas
declared he would walk with me.

"'Panchito,' he called to the urchin who just
then ran past my door, 'tell your mother I
want to speak to her for a moment.'

"'The madre has gone over the way to the
Señora Ochoa's,' said Panchito, arresting his
steps and coming into the room.

"'Well, then, where is Terésa? I will send
her with a message.'

"' Terésa is here,' replied the enfant terrible.
'I saw her bring the Ingles some coffee half-
an-hour ago.'

"'And has the Ingles swallowed her along
with the coffee? or has he put her in his
pocket?' said my host, laughing, and rapping
his son slightly on the head with his cane.

"'Perhaps he has hidden her behind the
screen,' retorted Panchito, and the little wretch
made a dart to get behind it. I caught him,
but too late to prevent him laying hold of the
screen, and down it came with the pull.

"'Terésa!' exclaimed the old Don, staring at
the girl and starting back, while his yellow face
assumed a cadaverous hue with surprise and
annoyance, 'por mi fé! you shall pay for this.'
Then turning to me, he added, ' Señor, I
have been giving you some hints for
campaigning; let me conclude by advising you
never to make a foray in a friend's hacienda.'
With these words, Señor Rivas made me a stiff
bow and quitted the room, and was followed by
Terésa and Panchito, the latter ruefully
rubbing his head, which had been bruised by the
falling screen.

"Left to myself, I could not help laughing at
what had occurred, though I was excessively
vexed at the contretemps. I reflected, too,
that Rivas would probably tell his wife, and
that so the affair would become known to Luisa
by which my position, with her would, I
thought, hardly be improved. It turned out
that I was wrong, however, in this part of my
supposition. The next time I met the Señora
and her daughters, the former indeed showed
that she was displeased by her stiff behaviour.
But I saw by the half-timid, half-arch glances
of the girls, and by an undefinable something in
their manner, that they knew what had taken
place, and were by no means offended. The
fact, no doubt, was, as my greater experience
of life now convinces me, that Terésa made each
señorita believe that I was in love with her,
and each was too conscious of her own charms
to feel any jealousy of Terésa, or to doubt
that she came to my room for any purpose but
what she really did. Opportunity for explanation
there was none, but I consoled myself with
the knowledge that we should meet at the ball, and
I was determined to tell Luisa then all about it.

"Parties begin at an early hour in Venezuela.
At nine P.M., the night after my adventure with
Terésa, I found myself dancing with Luisa at
the commandant's ball. The room was crammed
to suffocation, and the most jealous chaperone
could hardly in such a crowd maintain a
successful espionage on the doings of the girls
under her charge. I gave Luisa my version of
the affair with Terésa; and after we had laughed
over it sufficiently, I obtained her hand for the
next dance. I danced with her and Helena
repeatedly. My spirits rose, I took Luisa to
supper, I drank glass after glass of wine, and
began to commit sundry extravagances. Luisa
offered me a guayába. I refused it unless she
would bite it first. I then devoured it like a
maniac. In short, I lost control of myself, and
ended by an offer of marriage, couched in the
wildest terms of extravagant devotion. I was
accepted, and my ardour would, perhaps, have
made me too demonstrative, had not Luisa just
then, perceiving her mother enter the supper-
room, suddenly quitted my side with the
remark, 'Mamma will be so glad to hear this;
she has wished for this so much!'

"Impulsive persons are subject to violent
reaction. I have outlived all that," continued the
major; "but I was then peculiarly subject to
such revulsions of feeling. Luisa's remarks
somehow disturbed me, and I stood for a moment
thinking over it. In the midst of my reverie a