Chapter XXVI.
The next morning Casa Grande was thrown into consternation. Valencia Menendez was in a raging fever, and had to be held in her bed. After breakfast I sent for Estenega and told him of what I had seen. In the first place I had to tell some one, and in the second I thought to end his infatuation and avert further trouble. "You firebrand!" I exclaimed, in conclusion. "You see the mischief you have worked! You will go, now, thank heaven--and go cured." "I will go,--for a time," he said. "This mood of hers must wear itself out. But, if I loved her before, I worship her now. She is magnificent!--a woman with the passions of hell and the sweetness of an angel. She is the woman I have waited for all my life,--the only woman I have ever known. Some day I will take her in my arms and tell her that
- Writer
