’This discovery, ordinary and common-place enough in itself, for Englishmen and Americans are plentiful enough in Mexico now-a-days, still made a very serious impression on my mind, for the words I had overheard, and above all, the tone in which they were uttered, seemed to imply something mysterious, and to be the key-note of some dramatic fragment.  For hours I tossed about, pondering over those words, and day was dawning ere I fell asleep.

’The entrance of my learned landlady with a cup brimful of her latest concoction, awoke me.

‘’Here, Senor,’ said she, presenting the dose to me with a serene air of matronly confidence, ’Here, Senor, is a tea containing no less than seventeen different ingredients; and I have a presentiment that this is the very thing to perfect your cure.’

‘’Thank you a thousand times,’ I said, ’but I feel perfectly well this morning.’

‘’That is no matter—­’

‘’No matter! what is no matter?’

’’Why, no matter how well you fancy you feel; this is a sovereign remedy, so just drink it off to please me.’

’’For mercy’s sake, Senora, put down your medicine, sit down in the rocking-chair and draw near to the bedside, for I have several questions to ask.

‘’How long has my present neighbor lodged with you, Senora,’ said I, when she had duly ensconced herself.  She gazed inquiringly at me, but when I pointed to the door behind her, she replied, with apparent nonchalance: 

‘’Somewhere about three months.’

‘’And who is he?’

‘’That is a question I can not answer?’

‘’Why not?’

’’Because, over and above his rent, he paid me five dollars to hold my tongue.’

‘’If I were to offer you ten to let it go, how would it be then?’

‘’Ten dollars!’ replied my hostess, in a ruminating tone of voice.

‘’Yes, ten dollars.’

‘’I should feel it my duty to my fatherless children to speak,’ said this excellent mother of the bereaved heirs of the defunct Lopez.  ‘Yes—­holy Virgin, forgive me—­but I should feel bound to speak.’

‘’It is a bargain, then; Senora, proceed.’

‘’Your neighbor, Senor,’ replied my hostess, in a low voice, ’is a heretic—­an Englishman.’

‘’Not an American?’

’’English or American—­what is the difference, any way?  I tell you he is a heretic, and you know we Mexicans make no difference between those heathens—­we call them all Inglez.’’

’The fair Teresa, I may remark, had always taken me for one of her fellow-countrymen, as I spoke the language fluently, and had been thoroughly sun-burnt years before.