"Was it not kind in our dear Lady to send him so quickly; almost as soon as I had prayed through tears one little prayer?
"Oh! it was joy to see again my things in the hand of a friend, when I had believed them found by a stranger."
As the child paused, she looked confidingly at Sidney, who smiled assent to what she had been saying.
"Yes," he affirmed with unusual animation, "I was permitted to play, for the first time in my life, the exalted rôle of the good old man who comes out of the bushes just in time to save the beautiful princess from disaster."
We all laughed, but Mariposilla sank her lovely face lower, while she regarded her plate intently.
Suddenly she lifted her great earnest eyes fearlessly to my own. They were full of light and happiness. I doubted no longer that she was innocent of what I had imagined.
"I will call the señora early," Mariposilla said, when Sidney had gone and we were parting for the night. She had been dancing about the room clicking, in imitation of castanets, her cherished gold pieces.
"Is it not grand to be rich?" she cried. "How happy I am this night! I shall never be so happy again."
She looked strangely prophetic as she spoke. She had not removed her riding habit, and, while dancing, she caught up gracefully the insubordinate skirt, which trammeled her exuberance. Floating about the room, she appeared unconscious of everything but the delights of her awakened body. Her feet and arms moved in an ecstasy of unrestraint. The abandoned sway of her agile frame caught naturally each modulation of the improvised castanets.
"Come, dear Butterfly," I said, when she threw herself panting into a chair, her eyes shining with excitement. "Fly quickly to bed or the pretty wings will be weary for the hard, long to-morrow."