The man’s arm tightened about her. “We––we will call it––Carmencita,” he whispered.
The girl clapped her hands. “Can’t you see, padre, that God sends us Anita’s baby so that Padre Diego shall not have it? And now let’s go and tell her so, right away!” she cried, jumping down.
Josè slipped quickly back and stood beside the woman when Carmen and Rosendo entered the room. The old man went directly to his daughter, and, taking her in his brawny arms, raised her from the floor and strained her to his breast. Tears streamed down his swart cheeks, and the words he would utter choked and hung in his throat.
“Padre,” whispered the delighted child, “shall I tell her our names for the baby?”
Josè turned and stole softly from the room. Divine Love was there, and its dazzling effulgence blinded him. In the quiet of his own chamber he sought to understand the marvelous goodness of God to them that serve Him.
CHAPTER 27
The reversal of a life-current is not always effected suddenly, nor amid the din of stirring events, nor yet in an environment that we ourselves might choose as an appropriate setting. It comes in the fullness of time, and amid such scenes as the human mind which undergoes the transformation may see externalized within its own consciousness by the working of the as yet dimly perceived laws of thought.