She laid her head down on Ana's shoulder.
"I am so lonely," she said. The tears welled over from the childish eyes. The lips quivered. "I wonder how it feels, Ana, to have a mother." Ana's eyes were moist, too, but she repressed any show of feeling. Had not the Señor Escobeda ordered her to do so, and was not his will her daily rule?
Suddenly Raquel started—her hearing made sensitive by fear.
"I hear him coming, Ana," she said.
"You could not hear him, sweet; he has gone over to see the Señor Anecito Rojas."
"That dreadful man!" Raquel shuddered. "Why does he wish to see the Señor Anecito Rojas?"
"I do not know, Señorita." Ana shook her head pitifully. It seemed as if she might tell something if she would.
Suddenly she strained her arms round the girl.
"Raquel! Raquel!" she said, "promise me that you will sometimes think of me. That you will love me if we are separated. That if you can, if you have the power, you will send for me—"