"How know you that it is with Alessandro?" she said.
"Because she has written it here!" cried Felipe, defiantly holding
up his little note. "She left this, her good-by to me. Bless her! She
writes like a saint, to thank me for all my goodness to her,-- I, who
drove her to steal out of my house like a thief!"
The phrase, "my house," smote the Senora's ear like a note from
some other sphere, which indeed it was,-- from the new world into
which Felipe had been in an hour born. Her cheeks flushed, and
she opened her lips to reply; but before she had uttered a word,
Luigo came running round the corner, Juan Can hobbling after him
at a miraculous pace on his crutches. "Senor Felipe! Senor Felipe!
Oh, Senora!" they cried. "Thieves have been here in the night!
Baba is gone,-- Baba, and the Senorita's saddle."
A malicious smile broke over the Senora's countenance, and
turning to Felipe, she said in a tone -- what a tone it was! Felipe
felt as if he must put his hands to his ears to shut it out; Felipe
would never forget,-- "As you were saying, like a thief in the
night!"
With a swifter and more energetic movement than any had ever
before seen Senor Felipe make, he stepped forward, saying in an
undertone to his mother, "For God's sake, mother, not a word
before the men! -- What is that you say, Luigo? Baba gone? We
must see to our corral.
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