"You have worked long for Don Abreguardo?"
"I was born in the house, señorita," said the girl, with a flash of her white teeth.
"Is there a large family?" Janice asked doubtfully. "I am a stranger, you know."
"His mother lives—the ancient Donna Abreguardo. He now has his second wife, has the good don. By his first he has two daughters and a son. Young Don Ricardo is married and is at the Hacienda del Norte. The two señoritas are of the marriageable age—oh, yes! But in these troubled times who has thought for marriage?"
"And this is all his family?"
"There are the children. Three. Of the good don's second marriage. He has his quiver full, as my people say," and the Indian maid chuckled.
She seemed so intelligent that Janice would have continued the conversation had she not heard Marty moving so impatiently about the courtyard.
"Come on, Janice!" he said as she appeared. "There's breakfast waiting—and it ain't all beans. I'm as hungry as a shark."
A table was laid, with covered dishes on it, near the fountain. The courtyard was a clean, comfortable place. The style of living familiar to the Abreguardos was of course entirely new to Janice and her cousin. "Luz" waited upon the guests.
Don Abreguardo came bustling into the court before they had finished the repast. Now that he was dressed, he proved to be a very dapper figure of an old gentleman, his bald poll hidden by a cap.