"Ah! are you here at last, child! I was just about to send your uncle to look for you. Have you had dinner?"
"Not a mouthful," laughed Agueda, at the remembrance of the Señora at El Cuco. It was cruel to laugh while Aneta wept, but it was so hard not to be happy.
"Tell Juana to bring you some dinner. There was a san coche, very good, and a pilauf of chicken. Did you see Don Mateo?"
"No, Señor," said Agueda, looking down.
"Why will you persist in calling me Señor, Agueda? I am Beltran. Say it at once—Beltran!"
"Beltran," said Agueda, with a happy smile. Poor Aneta! Poor everybody in the world who did not have a Beltran to love her!
As Agueda told Beltran the history of her long day, he listened with interest. When she spoke of Aneta's changed life, "The brute!" said Beltran, "the damned brute!"
While Agueda was changing her dress for the dark blue skirt and white waist, Beltran sat and thought upon the veranda. When she came out again, he spoke.
"Agueda," said he, "it is time that you and I were married."
Agueda blushed.