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 neither read nor wrote in it, nor was her attention fixed on the trays of loose pearls, nor on the diamonds—she had completely forgotten herself and was all ears. Her husband himself, the great Capitan Toringoy,—a transformation of the name Domingo, the happiest man in the district, without other occupation than to dress well, eat, loaf, and gossip, while his whole family worked and toiled, had not gone to join his coterie, but was listening between fear and emotion to the hair-raising news of the lank Chichoy.

Nor was reason for all this lacking. Chichoy had gone to deliver some work for Don Timoteo Pelaez, a pair of earrings for the bride, at the very time when they were tearing down the kiosk that on the previous night had served as a dining-room for the foremost officials. Here Chichoy turned pale and his hair stood on end.

"Nakú!" he exclaimed, "sacks and sacks of powder, sacks of powder under the floor, in the roof, under the table, under the chairs, everywhere! It's lueky none of the workmen were smoking."

"Who put those sacks of powder there?" asked Capitana Loleng, who was brave and did not turn pale, as did the enamored Momoy. But Momoy had attended the wedding, so his posthumous emotion can be appreciated: he had been near the kiosk.

"That's what no one can explain," replied Chichoy. "Who would have any interest in breaking up the fiesta? There couldn't have been more than one, as the celebrated lawyer Señor Pasta who was there on a visit declared—either an enemy of Don Timoteo's or a rival of Juanito's."

The Orenda girls turned instinctively toward Isagani, who smiled silently.

"Hide yourself," Capitana Loleng advised him. "They may accuse you. Hide!"

Again Isagani smiled but said nothing.

"Don Timoteo," continued Chichoy, "did not know to