In the evening she returned to more terrestrial joys, and arraying herself in some of her infinite varieties of ball-dresses, with flowers and jewels in her hair, a tiny Panama hat cocked jauntily on the top of her head, and a rich shawl with one end thrown over the shoulder, she would step daintily out in her black satin shoes, with old Xavier in attendance, or sometimes with Robson as her cavalier, to meet her friends on the beach, or make a call in the lamp-lit corridor of some other rancho.  There were innumerable balls, dances, and pic-nics to the rich and fertile villages and haciendas around, and fetes of every description almost every evening; visits to the tombs of the old Peruvians, whose graves were often rudely and lightly searched for the sake of their curious images and golden ornaments.  The Senora declared it was the most lovely summer she had ever spent, and that nothing should induce her to return to Lima while her friends remained there.

The other object, of re-invigorating Mr. Ponsonby, had not been attained.  He had been ailing for some time past, and, instead of deriving benefit from the sea-breezes, only missed the comforts of home.  He was so testy and exacting that Mary would have seldom liked to leave him to himself, even if she had been disposed to lead the life of a fish; and she was seldom away from him, unless Robson came down from Lima to transact business with him.

Mary dreaded these interviews, for her father always emerged from them doubly irritable and dispirited; and when Rosita claimed the Senor Robson as her knight for her evening promenade, and the father and daughter were left alone together, he would blame the one lady for going, the other for staying—­then draw out his papers again, and attempt to go over them, with a head already aching and confused—­be angry at Mary’s entreaties that he would lay them aside, or allow her to help him—­and presently be obliged with a sigh to desist, and lie back in his chair, while she fanned him, or cooled his forehead with iced water.  Yet he was always eager and excited for Robson to come; and a delay of a day would put his temper in such a state that his wife kept out of his sight, leaving Mary to soothe him as she might.

‘Mary,’ said her father one evening, when she was standing at the window of the corridor, refreshing her eye with gazing at the glorious sunset in the midst of a pile of crimson and purple clouds, reflected in the ocean—­’Mary, Ward is going to Mew York next week.’

‘So soon?’ said Mary.

‘Aye, and he is coming here to-morrow to see you.’

Mary still looked out with a sort of interest to see a little gold flake change its form as it traversed a grand violet tower.

’I hope you will make him a more reasonable answer than you did last time,’ said her father; ’it is too bad to keep the poor man dangling on at this rate!  And such a man!’

‘I am very sorry for it, but I cannot help it,’ said Mary; ’no one can be kinder or more forbearing than he has been, but I wish he would look elsewhere.’