But will it be for long? Are you
never to save any souls of your own kind? Are not twenty years of
mesclados enough? No, no!" finished young Gaston, hot with his unforeseen
eloquence; "I should ride down some morning and take the barkentine."
Padre Ignacio was silent for a space.
"I have not offended you?" asked the young man.
"No. Anything but that. You are surprised that I should--choose--to stay
here. Perhaps you may have wondered how I came to be here at all?"
"I had not intended any impertinent--"
"Oh no. Put such an idea out of your head, my son. You may remember that
I was going to make you a confession about my operas. Let us sit down in
this shade."
So they picketed the mules near the stream and sat down.
IV
You have seen," began Padre Ignacio, "what sort of a man I--was once.
Indeed, it seems very strange to myself that you should have been here
not twenty-four hours yet, and know so much of me. For there has come no
one else at all"--the Padre paused a moment and mastered the
unsteadiness that he had felt approaching in his voice--"there has been
no one else to whom I have talked so freely. In my early days I had no
thought of being a priest. By parents destined me for a diplomatic
career.
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