Still, it is difficult to throw off a habit of obedience formed in early youth; and she did not feel as if she could break through the chill atmosphere of the man and ask: "For what reason have you come, father ?" A long, shrill shriek from the Senora was the first answer to the fearful question in her heart.

In a few moments she was at her mother's door.

Rachela knelt outside it, telling her rosary.

She stolidly kept her place, and a certain instinct for a moment prevented Antonia interrupting her.

But the passionate words of her mother, blending with the low, measured tones of the priest, were something far more positive.
"Let me pass you, Rachela.