“Your brother seemed quite dazed.  Poor Esteban! several nights we found him half dressed in the upper cloister, as stiff as a post, gazing up at the heavens with eyes that looked like glass.  He became furious if any of us spoke of searching for the child; the scandal was past remedy, and he did not wish to aggravate it by her return, bringing back a lost one to the Holy Metropolitan Church, and to the honoured house of the Lunas.  For more than a year everyone in the Claverias seemed crushed by this blow; it seemed as though we were all in mourning.  You see, that such a thing should occur in the Cathedral where the years pass by in blessed peace without any of us saying one word louder than the other!  And then I remembered you.  It seemed impossible that from these Lunas, so quiet and steady, should have sprung a girl with sufficient pluck to run away to Madrid, where she had never been before, to join a man, without fear of God or of her own people.  To whom could I liken the unhappy child?  To her uncle, to Gabriel who passed for a saint, but who, nevertheless, after fighting like a wolf, wandered all over the world just like a gipsy.”

Gabriel made no protest at the conception his aunt had formed of his past.

“And after her flight?  What did you know about the child?”

“At first a good deal, but latterly not a word.  The two were living in Madrid together, peacefully and quietly, away from the world, as though they were man and wife.  This lasted for a good while, and I, hearing about it, began to wonder if I had not been mistaken, and that the man we had blamed so much had repented and would end by marrying Sagrario.  But at the end of the year everything was ended; he grew tired, and the family intervened, in order that the escapade should not cut short the career they had marked out for the young man.  They even sought the aid of the police, to frighten the child, so that she should not molest the young officer in the first angry transports of her desertion.  Afterwards—­nothing certain is known.  Now and again those who have gone to Madrid told me a little; some of them had seen her, but it would have been far better if they had not seen her.  It is a disgrace, Gabriel; a dishonour for your family which is mine.  This unhappy girl is the worst of the worst.  I heard that she had been very ill, and I believe that she is so still.  Just imagine, what a life!  And for five years!  What will have happened to the unfortunate girl!  And to think that she is my sister’s daughter!”

The Senora Tomasa spoke with deep feeling.

“Afterwards, Gabriel, you know what happened here; your poor sister-in-law died, we hardly knew why, it was only a matter of a few days; possibly she may have died of the shame, as she died saying that the fault was entirely hers.  It broke one’s heart to see the state your brother was in after all this.  Esteban has never been good for much, and now after this affair of his daughter he seemed to