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I should be glad to leave Miriam something to make her independent." "I should say that her Creator had already done that!" said Meschines. "By the way, I know a young fellow if he were only here who is just the man you want, and can be trusted. He's a civil engineer, Harvey Freeman: the Lord only knows in what part of the world he is at this speaking.
"No woman ever took compassion on me," he remarked, "and you see the result, ashes!" "Ashes, with their wonted fires living in them," said Trednoke. "We were talking about this Indian of yours," said Meschines. "Ay, to be sure. Well, he was attached to Inez's family when I first knew them. It was a peculiar relation; not like that of a servant. One finds such things in Mexico.
Leaving their horses in the care of a couple of stable-boys, Meschines and Freeman mounted the veranda, and were there greeted by General Trednoke. "I'm afraid we'll have a hot ride of it," he observed. "The atmosphere is rather oppressive. Kamaiakan tells me there was a touch of earthquake last night."
Whether my country has benefited much by the Mexican annexation, I can't say; but I know Inez made a heaven on earth for me," concluded the general, in a low voice. His countenance, at this moment, wore a solemn and humble expression, beautiful to see; and Miriam bent and laid her cheek against his. Meschines knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and sighed.
The boy that won the fight is the man to whose house I am going." "Then he didn't marry your mamma?" "Oh, no; that was only a childish affair, and she married another man." "The one who got thrashed?" "Of course not. But the one who got thrashed is your Professor Meschines." "I see! The poor old professor! And he has remained a bachelor all his life."
"Possibly," the professor suggested, "the place where the treasure is hidden is the place whence the water is to flow out; and the water is the treasure." "Seriously, do you suppose that such a phenomenon as the return of an inland sea is physically practicable?" asked Trednoke. "No phenomenon, in this part of the world, would surprise me," returned Meschines.
"I hope the time will come when you will feel that you may trust me." "You seem easy to know, Mr. Freeman," she replied, looking at him contemplatively as she spoke, "and yet you are not. There is one of you that thinks, and another that speaks. And you are not the same to my father, or to Professor Meschines, that you are to me."
In a few seconds, Grace entered the curiosity-room, followed by Professor Meschines, and by a dashing young Mexican senor, whom Freeman had met the previous evening, and who was called Don Miguel de Mendoza. The senor, to judge from his manner, had already fallen violently in love with Grace, and was almost dislocating his organs of speech in the effort to pay her romantic compliments in English.
"It is not necessary, general," replied the young man, straightening himself and looking the other in the face; "for from this point our paths lie apart." "Why so?" demanded the general, in surprise. "What's that?" exclaimed Meschines, coming up, and adjusting his spectacles. "I'm not at liberty, at present, to explain," Freeman answered.
He was smoking a large and excellent cigar; and a cup of coffee, with a tiny glass of cognac beside it, stood on a mahogany stand at his elbow. "Do you remember, Meschines, the time I licked you at school?" he inquired, in a tone of pleasant reminiscence. "I can't say I do. What's more, I venture to challenge your statement.