"And the little one," said Rosita in turn. "Is she not like a half-blown pink rose?"
"Aye! 'tis a feast for the eyes to look at them!" answered Juan. "There has not been so much life in the place since the old days when the Master was alive."
"If Don Felipe doesn't marry one of them he's a fool," added Rosita.
"That's just what I have been saying to myself," returned Juan.
"What else can he be doing here if he doesn't intend to take one of them back to his hacienda with him?" continued Rosita. "I've noticed that he and the tall one spend much time together."
"Aye!" ejaculated Juan. "It must be lonely at the old rancho without a woman to keep him company."
"The tall Señorita would be just the one for the place!" exclaimed Rosita enthusiastically.
"Rosita mia," began Juan confidentially after a short silence, during which his gaze rested pensively on the retreating figures of the girls, "I've just been thinking that there is no happiness for a man, still less for a woman, in a single life. What say you, Rosita mia," he went on, patting her familiarly on the cheek.
"Juan Ramon," interrupted Rosita with an angry flush, "if you don't want to get your face slapped, you had better behave like a Caballero!"
"Caramba! what a little spitfire!" returned Juan, pulling the end of his thin mustache, yet not in the least disconcerted by her show of temper. "But supposing, my pearl of a housekeeper, that I bought a neat little rancheria—do you know of any one who might care to look after it?"