Evidently his Excellency was going with the Arguello party, who had ordered a carriage, doubtless, for the same important journey, an hour before, yet had left only a few moments after his Excellency, and his Excellency, it would appear, had gone to the wrong station.
Paul pushed hurriedly past the man and ascended to his room.

Both windows were open, and in the faint moonlight he could see that something white was pinned to his pillow.

With nervous fingers he relit his candles, and found it was a note in Yerba's handwriting.

As he opened it, a tiny spray of the vine that had grown on the crumbling wall fell at his feet.

He picked it up, pressed it to his lips, and read, with dim eyes, as follows:-- "You know now why I spoke to you as I did to-day, and why the other half of this precious spray is the only memory I care to carry with me out of this crumbling ruin of all my hopes.