"_Señor_, you are incorrigible!" the Señorita Lolita exclaimed, laughing.
Don Carlos and Doña Catalina heard that laugh, looked around, and then exchanged quick glances. Don Diego Vega was getting along famously with the _señorita_, they thought.
Then Don Diego continued the deception by playing his guitar and singing a verse of a song that had to do with bright eyes and love. Don Carlos and his wife glanced at each other again, this time in apprehension, and wished that he would stop, for the scion of the Vegas had many superiors as musician and vocalist, and they feared that he might lose what ground he had gained in the _señorita's_ estimation.
But if Lolita thought little of the _caballero's_ singing, she said nothing to that effect, and she did not act displeased. There was some more conversation; and just before the _siesta_ hour Don Diego bade them _buenas dias_ and rode away in his gorgeous carriage. From the turn in the driveway, he waved back at them.
Captain Ramón's courier, sent north with the letter for the governor, had dreams of gay times in San Francisco de Asis before returning to his _presidio_ at Reina de Los Angeles. He knew a certain _señorita_ there whose beauty caused his heart to burn.
So he rode like a fiend after leaving his _comandante's_ office, changed mounts at San Fernando and at a _hacienda_ along the way, and galloped into Santa Barbara a certain evening just at dusk, with the intention of changing horses again, getting meat and bread and wine at the _presidio_, and rushing on his way.
And at Santa Barbara his hopes of basking in the _señorita's_ smiles at San Francisco de Asis were cruelly shattered. For before the door of the _presidio_ there was a gorgeous carriage that made Don Diego's appear like a _carreta_, and a score of horses were tethered there, and more troopers than were stationed at Santa Barbara regularly moved about the highway, laughing and jesting with one another.
His excellency had left San Francisco de Asis some days before on a trip of inspection, and intended to go as far south as San Diego de Alcála, strengthening his political fences, rewarding his friends, and awarding punishment to his enemies.
He had reached Santa Barbara an hour before, and was listening to the report of the _comandante_ there, after which he intended remaining during the night with a friend. His troopers were to be given quarters at the _presidio_, of course, and the journey was to continue on the morrow.