have yourself forgotten to take from me your demission,' he said. This
escort, thinking to make his peace with a mere muchacho, gives to him a
gold piece of twenty pesos. The little hidalgo has taken it SO, and
with the words, 'Ah! you would make of me your almoner to my cousin's
people,' has given it at the moment to Domingo, and with a grace and
fire admirable." But it is certain that Clarence's singular simplicity
and truthfulness, a faculty of being picturesquely indolent in a way
that suggested a dreamy abstraction of mind rather than any vulgar
tendency to bodily ease and comfort, and possibly the fact that he was
a good horseman, made him a popular hero at El Refugio. At the end of
three years Don Juan found that this inexperienced and apparently idle
boy of fourteen knew more of the practical ruling of the rancho than he
did himself; also that this unlettered young rustic had devoured nearly
all the books in his library with boyish recklessness of digestion.
He found, too, that in spite of his singular independence of action,
Clarence was possessed of an invincible loyalty of principle, and that,
asking no sentimental affection, and indeed yielding none, he was,
without presuming on his relationship, devoted to his cousin's interest.
It seemed that from being a glancing ray of sunshine in the house,
evasive but never obtrusive, he had become a daily necessity of comfort
and security to his benefactor.
Clarence was, however, astonished, when, one morning, Don Juan, with the
same embarrassed manner he had shown at their first meeting, suddenly
asked him, "what business he expected to follow." It seemed the more
singular, as the speaker, like most abstracted men, had hitherto always
studiously ignored the future, in their daily intercourse. Yet this
might have been either the habit of security or the caution of
doubt. Whatever it was, it was some sudden disturbance of Don Juan's
equanimity, as disconcerting to himself as it was to Clarence. So
conscious was the boy of this that, without replying to his cousin's
|