Victoriano did not go to bed. He preferred to walk out to the front piazza and have another look at that window of Alice's room. Yes the light was still burning. He felt sure that she was ill. Was she to be sick, and he not able to see her? or inquire for her? How angry he felt at old Darrell. Poor Tano, he was a prey to contending emotions. He now wished to see Mercedes, and had told his father that he would lie in one of the hammocks in the veranda, instead of going to bed, so that he would be called to Mercedes' room as soon as she awoke.
Presently Don Mariano came and said to him: “Victoriano, Mercedes is awake, but so entirely out of her head that she does not know any one of us. We must send for a physician.”
“I will go at once,” Victoriano said, jumping to his feet.
“No, you have been up all night. We don't want too many sick to take care of. Gabriel will go.”
Victoriano looked towards the fascinating window, and hesitating a little, said:
“I am afraid Alice is sick too. Evidently a light has been burning in her room all night. She fainted when Clarence was leaving them, and for the last two days she has been so nervous, Everett says, that she was almost in convulsions.”
“There is some one going out in Clarence's buggy. Perhaps they are sending for a doctor,” Don Mariano said.
“I believe it,” Victoriano said, watching the buggy. “It is Everett. Alice is ill, I am sure. Retty is coming this way.”
Everett was driving fast, and in a very few minutes was at the gate, and coming to the piazza.
“I ventured to come up,” he said, “because I saw you here. It is a most unchristian hour to go into a neighbor's house.”