“I adore you both, mamacita, but I want Edourdo.  Where is he?”

Her mother grimaced.  “I suppose it is no use to protest.  Well, my little one, I think he is at this moment on the hill with Lieutenant Ord.”

“Why did he not come to see me before he went out?”

“He did, my daughter, but thou wert asleep.  He kissed thee and stole away.”

“Where?”

“Right there on your cheek, one inch below your eyelashes.”

“When will he return?”

“Holy Mary!  For dinner, surely, and that will be in an hour.”

“When can I get up?”

“In another week.  Thou art so well!  I would not have thee draw too heavily on thy little strength.  Another month and thou wilt not remember that thou hast been ill.  Then we will go to the rancho, where thou and thy little one will have sun all day and no fog.”

“Have I not a good husband, mamacita?”

“Yes; I love him like my own son.  Had he been unkind to thee, I should have killed him with my own hands; but as he has his lips to thy little slipper, I forgive him for being an American.”

“And you no longer wish for a necklace of American ears!  Oh, mamma!”

Dona Eustaquia frowned, then sighed.  “I do not know the American head for which I have not more like than hate, and they are welcome to their ears; but the spirit of that wish is in my heart yet, my child.  Our country has been taken from us; we are aliens in our own land; it is the American’s.  They—­holy God!—­permit us to live here!”

“But they like us better than their own women.”

“Perhaps; they are men and like what they have not had too long.”

“Mamacita, I am thirsty.”

“What wilt thou have?  A glass of water?”

“Water has no taste.”

“I know!”

Dona Eustaquia left the room and returned with an orange.  “This will be cool and pleasant on so warm a day.  It is just a little sour,” she said; but the nurse raised her bony hand.

“Do not give her that,” she said in her harsh voice.  “It is too soon.”

“Nonsense!  The baby is two weeks old.  Why, I ate fruit a week after childing.  Look how dry her mouth is!  It will do her good.”

She pared the orange and gave it to Benicia, who ate it gratefully.

“It is very good, mamita.  You will spoil me always, but that is because you are so good.  And one day I hope you will be as happy as your little daughter; for there are other good Americans in the world.  No? mamma.  I think—­Mamacita!”

She sprang upward with a loud cry, the body curving rigidly; her soft brown eyes stared horribly; froth gathered about her mouth; she gasped once or twice, her body writhing from the agonized arms that strove to hold it, then fell limply down, her features relaxing.

“She is dead,” said the nurse.

“Benicia!” whispered Dona Eustaquia.  “Benicia!”