tain hanging over the Campo, over the whole land,

feared, hated, wealthy, more soulless than any tyrant. more pitiless and autocratic than the worst govern- ment, ready to crush innumerable lives in the ex- pansion of its greatness. He did not see it. He could not see it. It was not his fault. He was perfect, perfect; but she would never have him to herself. or; not for one short hour altogether to herself in this old Spanish house she loved so well! Incor- rigible, the last of the Corbel an s. the last of the Avellanos, the doctor had said; but she saw clearly the San Tome! mine possessing, consuming, burning up the life of the last of the Costaguana Goulds; ma ing the energetic spirit of the son as it had mastered the lamentable weakness of the father. A terrible success for the last of the Goulds. The last! She luul hoped for a long, long time, that perhaps But no! There were to l>e no more. An immense deso- lation. the dread of her own continued life, descended upon the first latly of Sulaco. With a prophet herself surviving alone the dev : y un^ idj '. ': life, ol l>ve, of work a!' 1:1 tl.r TieaMiiv House of the V. rM Tl.e profound, blind, suffering expression of a painful dream settled on her face with its closed eyes. In the indistinct voice of an unlucky sleeper, lying passive in the toils of a merciless nightmare, she stammered out aimlessly the words:

Material interests."