eBooks Base 2000

Have no converse with stragglers, least of all those gentile
Americanos. So" ...
The first strokes of the Angelus came from the nearer tower. With a
gesture Father Pedro waved Antonio aside, and opened the door of the
sacristy.
"_Ad Majorem Dei Gloria_."

II.
The hacienda of Don Juan Briones, nestling in a wooded cleft of the
foot-hills, was hidden, as Father Pedro had wisely reflected, from the
straying feet of travelers along the dusty highway to San Jose. As
Francisco, emerging from the _canada_, put spurs to his mule at the
sight of the whitewashed walls, Antonio grunted:
"Oh aye, little priest! thou wast tired enough a moment ago, and though
we are not three leagues from the Blessed Fisherman, thou couldst
scarce sit thy saddle longer. Mother of God! and all to see that little
mongrel, Juanita."
"But, good Antonio, Juanita was my playfellow, and I may not soon again
chance this way. And Juanita is not a mongrel, no more than I am."
"She is a _mestiza_, and thou art a child of the Church, though this
following of gypsy wenches does not show it.


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