Leota trembled with fear, and wept bitterly. The grandmother had loved her, and now there was no one left, only Crimson Tuft, who sat by her side all through the silent hours.
The next evening, at sunset, the old señora was buried in the sea.
No one wept but the beautiful young maiden, as the steamer went on, leaving in its wake the cold, lifeless body, wrapped in its shroud of sparkling waters.
At length the good ship arrived safely in Mexico, and Crimson Tuft took the proud young heiress to the hacienda, where a crowd of friends and retainers awaited her.
The will was opened, and there was a large legacy left to Crimson Tuft. But it was as nothing to him. With so much ugliness, what had he to hope for!
In the last paper the señora had handed him, there was a still fuller description of the spot where the treasure was hidden, and a night appointed for him to seek it. It was the eighteenth birthnight of the Donna Leota. Till then, she was to be placed in a convent, and Crimson Tuft was to have the best tutors in the City of Mexico. This would make a man of him.
So the young people were separated for a time, but the two years soon rolled by, and Crimson Tuft returned to the hacienda with his papers.
What a change there was in him. His brown, dark face had grown every day more fair, and his stiff red hair more soft and silky, and of a rich brown color. It was really wonderful. The young man was transformed, day by day, from the ugly Crimson Tuft to the handsome Paul.
The Donna Leota had become the beautiful woman that her childhood promised, and when she met Paul after the two years of separation, she felt that the great mystery was solved, and knew that she could never love any one else. So they were betrothed, and she was to be made his wife on her eighteenth birthday.
At the appointed time, Paul sought and found the great treasure that had been hidden for so long. There were immense iron pots, full of shining gold pieces, that had been hidden during one of the many Mexican revolutions. Thus it was found that the Donna Leota was the richest maiden in all Mexico, and she had many suitors among the wealthy Spanish hidalgoes; but she cared only for Paul, for the spell of the wonderful eyes, which had been Crimson Tuft’s, was upon her.