“You can go now, Alessandro,” said the Senora. “I will sit here. You are quite sure that it will be safe for Senor Felipe to sleep here all night?”
“It will cure him before many nights,” replied Alessandro, still without raising his eyes, and turning to go.
“Stay,” said the Senora. Alessandro paused. “It will not do for him to be alone here in the night, Alessandro.”
Alessandro had thought of this, and had remembered that if he lay on the veranda floor by Senor Felipe's side, he would also lie under the Senorita's window.
“No, Senora,” he replied. “I will lie here by his side. That was what I had thought, if the Senora is willing.”
“Thank you, Alessandro,” said the Senora, in a tone which would have surprised poor Ramona, still sitting alone in her room, with sad eyes. She did not know the Senora could speak thus sweetly to any one but Felipe. “Thank you! You are kind. I will have a bed made for you.”
“Oh, no.” cried Alessandro; “if the Senora will excuse me, I could not lie on a bed. A raw-hide like Senor Felipe's, and my blanket, are all I want. I could not lie on any bed.”
“To be sure,” thought the Senora; “what was I thinking of! How the boy makes one forget he is an Indian! But the floor is harder than the ground, Alessandro,” she said kindly.
“No, Senora,” he said, “it is all one; and to-night I will not sleep. I will watch Senor Felipe, in case there should be a wind, or he should wake and need something.”
“I will watch him myself till midnight,” said the Senora. “I should feel easier to see how he sleeps at first.”