Now as they passed her they seemed to beat and trample upon her while their compassionate or disdainful looks penetrated through her panuelo and stung her face.

When these travelers had finally passed she sighed and raised the panuelo an instant to see how far she still was from the town.

There yet remained a few telegraph poles to be passed before reaching the _bantayan_, or little watch-house, at the entrance to the town.

Never had that distance seemed so great to her.
Beside the road there grew a leafy bamboo thicket in whose shade she had rested at other times, and where her lover had talked so sweetly as he helped her carry her basket of fruit and vegetables.

Alas, all that was past, like a dream! The lover had become her husband and a cabeza de barangay, and then trouble had commenced to knock at her door.