"Yes, all settled, and you are to begin work to-morrow. Are you ready for it, girls?"
"I am. Are you, Mary Lee?" said Nan.
"I am when we are to have such a dear as that to teach us."
"I think we have found the kind you want, Nan," said Miss Helen with a smile. "I am sure we shall all respect Miss Garcia, and I am equally sure she will not let you walk over her."
"That's good," returned Nan. "You've done noble, Miss Helen, as Unc' Landy says," and she ran out to hunt up the twins and to tell them this important news. She was as much excited as Mary Lee and was usually much more romantic, yet, strange to say, it was Mary Lee who gave a doting affection to the new governess. Nan admired her immensely and felt the influence of her gentle dignity, but Mary Lee fell in love with her in that fond and foolish way that girls sometimes have. She was always at the gate to watch for her approach; she hoarded up dainties for her until her mother said she believed Mary Lee grudged the entire family anything specially good.
Miss Garcia accepted all these attentions with a grave graciousness, but was not spoiled by them. "She is just like a queen," said Mary Lee. "I'd love to dress her in silks and satins and shower jewels upon her. She dresses so very plainly. Do you suppose she hasn't any real nice things?"
"I don't suppose she has," returned Nan, to whom the remark was made. "She would look lovely in fine fixings, wouldn't she? I suppose her uncle is not well off, and he has a wife and children to support. I shouldn't wonder if they had had money though, for the other day she was speaking of the great estates the Spaniards used to have and told how they had lost them all. I should think they would hate the Americans."
"I reckon they do," said Mary Lee, "but my señorita doesn't hate us."
"Your señorita! You would suppose you had discovered her and then bought her," replied Nan in a vexed tone. "I declare, Mary Lee, you make me ill the way you go on, and I don't believe she cares for you any more than for the rest of us. I believe she is fondest of Jean, myself."
This was gall and bitterness to poor Mary Lee, who felt such jealous pangs as never before had she endured and which had the effect of sending her with a miserable countenance to the further end of the veranda when Miss de Garcia next came.