"
Which may be rendered:
But one wish I implore,
One wish is all my cry:
Give back my native land once more,
Give back, or let me die.
Then it happened that his eye fell again upon the stranger near the door,
and he skaightway forgot his Dixit Dominus. The face of the young man was
no longer hidden by the slouching position he had at first taken. "I
only noticed his clothes at first," thought the Padre. Restlessness was
plain upon the handsome brow, and violence was in the mouth; but Padre
Ignacio liked the eyes. "He is not saying any prayers," he surmised,
presently. "I doubt if he has said any for a long while. And he knows my
music. He is of educated people. He cannot be American. And now--yes, he
has taken--I think it must be a flower, from his pocket. I shall have him
to dine with me." And vespers ended with rosy clouds of eagerness
drifting across the Padre's brain.
II
But the stranger made his own beginning. As the priest came from the
church, the rebellious young figure was waiting. "Your organist tells
me," he said, impetuously, "that it is you who--"
"May I ask with whom I have the great pleasure of speaking?" said the
Padre, putting formality to the front and his pleasure out of sight.
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