"One welcome I had a right to expect at this door," the old lady answered, "and he is not here."
"He will be heart-broken. He did not think you had yet reached San Diego. To-day he was to start for there. Will it please you to have this seat?"
"Not yet," she said. "Raquelita!"
Raquel Estevan gently disengaged her other hand from Dolores, and the frail old woman led her to the little shrine of the Virgin, where the candles glimmered. The others halted at the door, but Fernando and Dolores and Ana knelt also as the old woman and the girl from Mexico clasped hands and bent heads before the statue in the niche.
The old woman rose first and kissed the girl's forehead.
"My daughter," she said, faintly, "I welcome you for my son and for myself, to the land where you are mistress. Now, señor!"
Fernando placed a chair for her, and she sank into it wearily.
"My last journey, my children! You are the son of Manuel Mendez?—we called ourselves cousins once. I present you—all of you—to my daughter—Doña Raquel Estevan."
"At your feet, señorita!" said Fernando.
"I appreciate the honor of your acquaintance, señor," replied Raquel, in the conventional greeting of the day and land. Then the others crowded about, and spoke many pretty things of welcome. But in the midst of it all Doña Luisa arose, and leaning on Jacoba's arm, passed into the room prepared for her. The group left behind stared into each other's eyes.