Padre Damaso stood at the side of the beauty, smiling like one especially blessed.

Fray Sibyla--yes, Fray Sibyla himself--was talking to her.

Dona Victorina was arranging in the magnificent hair of the maiden a string of pearls and diamonds which threw out all the beautiful tints of the rainbow.

She was white, perhaps too much so, and whenever she raised her downcast eyes there shone forth a spotless soul.

When she smiled so as to show her small white teeth the beholder realized that the rose is only a flower and ivory but the elephant's tusk.