This time Clarence drove slowly down the hill, looking at both sides of the road, peering under the trees and bushes, still impressed with the idea that he might see her form or hear her voice. The moon was just rising, casting long shadows as it arose, but the shadow of that beloved, graceful form was nowhere to be seen. This added disappointment was added bitterness to his cup of misery, and he began to feel sick in body and mind, and he saw in himself a most wretched outcast.
Tano and Doña Josefa now came and saw the phæton ascending the hill on the other side of the brook.
CHAPTER XXIX.—Hasty Decisions Repented Leisurely.
When Victoriano had left Everett at his front door, exacting the promise that he would come to breakfast with Clarence next morning, he merely delayed long enough to learn that Alice was quiet, and Mrs. Darrell thought that with a night's rest she would be well next day. He then drove back home, and thinking that Clarence was going to stay, left the phæton at the front gate to run down through the side gate to Mrs. Mechlin's, to call his mother and say to her that Clarence had been sent off by his father, and had come to their house to pass the night. But as he hurried through the front garden, Victoriano remembered that the horses had to be put in the stable and taken care of, so he went in the kitchen to tell a servant he must attend to the horses immediately.
“Yes, patroncito, I'll do it right away,” said the lazy Indian, who first had to stretch himself and yawn several times, then hunt up tobacco and cigarette paper, and smoke his cigarette. This done, he, having had a heavy supper, shuffled lazily to the front of the house, as Clarence was driving down the hill for the second time, and Doña Josefa and Victoriano returning from Mrs. Mechlin, came in through the garden side gate.
“Who is going in that carriage?” was the first question put by Victoriano to Madame Halier.
“It is Monsieur Clarence.”
“And where is Mercedes?”
“She called you to go to Madame Mechlin's.”
“No such thing,” said Victoriano, going to look in the parlor; returning immediately to renew his questions.