The Splendid Idle Forties
by
Gertrude Atherton
Part 3 out of 5
"Hush the voices," cried Faquita, scrubbing diligently. "It is well that
she stay at home and does not dance away her beauty before he come. She
is like a lily."
"But lilies turn brown, old Faquita, when the wind blow on them too
long. Dost thou think he will return?"
"Surely," said Faquita, stoutly. "Could any one forget that angel?"
"Ay, these men, these men!" said Francesca, with a sigh.
"Oh, thou old raven!" cried Mariquita. "But truly--truly--she has had no
letter for three months."
"Aha, senorita, thou didst not tell us that just now."
"Nor did I intend to. The words just fell from my teeth."
"He is ill," cried Faquita, angrily. "Ay, my probrecita! Sometimes I
think Ysabel is more happy under the rocks."
"How dost thou know he is ill? Will he die?" The wash-tub mail had made
too few mistakes in its history to admit of doubt being cast upon the
assertion of one of its officials.
"I hear Captain Brotherton read from a letter to Dona Eustaquia. Ay,
they are happy!"
"When?"
"Two hours ago."
"Then we know before the town--like always."
"Surely. Do we not know all things first? Hist!"
The women dropped their heads and fumbled at the linen in the water. La
Tulita was approaching.
She came across the meadow with all her old swinging grace, the blue
gown waving about her like the leaves of a California lily when the wind
rustled the forest. But the reboso framed a face thin and pale, and the
sparkle was gone from her eyes. She passed the tubs and greeted the old
women pleasantly, walked a few steps up the hill, then turned as if in
obedience to an afterthought, and sat down on a stone in the shade of a
willow.
"It is cool here," she said.
"Yes, senorita." They were not deceived, but they dared not stare at
her, with Faquita's scowl upon them.
"What news has the wash-tub mail to-day?" asked the girl, with an
attempt at lightness. "Did an enemy invade the South this morning, and
have you heard it already, as when General Kearney came? Is General
Castro still in Baja California, or has he fled to Mexico? Has Dona
Prudencia Iturbi y Moncada given a ball this week at Santa Barbara? Have
Don Diego and Dona Chonita--?"
"The young Lieutenant is ill," blurted out one of the old women, then
cowered until she almost fell into her tub. Faquita sprang forward and
caught the girl in her arms.
"Thou old fool!" she cried furiously. "Thou devil! Mayst thou find a
tarantula in thy bed to-night. Mayst thou dream thou art roasting in
hell." She carried La Tulita rapidly across the meadow.
"Ah, I thought I should hear there," said the girl, with a laugh. "Thank
heaven for the wash-tub mail."
Faquita nursed her through a long illness. She recovered both health
and reason, and one day the old woman brought her word that the young
Lieutenant was well again--and that his illness had been brief and
slight.
THE LAST
"Ay, but the years go quick!" said Mariquita, as she flapped a piece of
linen after taking it from the water. "I wonder do all towns sleep like
this. Who can believe that once it is so gay? The balls! The grand
caballeros! The serenades! The meriendas! No more! No more! Almost I
forget the excitement when the Americanos coming. I no am young any
more. Ay, yi!"
"Poor Faquita, she just died of old age," said a woman who had been
young with Mariquita, spreading an article of underwear on a bush. "Her
life just drop out like her teeth. No one of the old women that taught
us to wash is here now, Mariquita. We are the old ones now, and we teach
the young, ay, yi!"
"Well, it is a comfort that the great grow old like the low people. High
birth cannot keep the skin white and the body slim. Ay, look! Who can
think she is so beautiful before?"
A woman was coming down the road from the town. A woman, whom
passing years had browned, although leaving the fine strong features
uncoarsened. She was dressed simply in black, and wore a small American
bonnet. The figure had not lost the slimness of its youth, but the walk
was stiff and precise. The carriage evinced a determined will.
"Ay, who can think that once she sway like the tule!" said Mariquita,
with a sigh. "Well, when she come to-day I have some news. A letter, we
used to call it, dost thou remember, Brigida? Who care for the wash-tub
mail now? These Americanos never hear of it, and our people--triste de
mi--have no more the interest in anything."
"Tell us thy news," cried many voices. The older women had never lost
their interest in La Tulita. The younger ones had heard her story many
times, and rarely passed the wall before her house without looking at
the tall rose-bush which had all the pride of a young tree.
"No, you can hear when she come. She will come to-day. Six months ago
to-day she come. Ay, yi, to think she come once in six months all these
years! And never until to-day has the wash-tub mail a letter for her."
"Very strange she did not forget a Gringo and marry with a caballero,"
said one of the girls, scornfully. "They say the caballeros were so
beautiful, so magnificent. The Americans have all the money now, but she
been rich for a little while."
"All women are not alike. Sometimes I think she is more happy with the
memory." And Mariquita, who had a fat lazy husband and a swarm of brown
children, sighed heavily. "She live happy in the old house and is not so
poor. And always she have the rose-bush. She smile, now, sometimes, when
she water it."
"Well, it is many years," said the girl, philosophically. "Here she
come."
La Tulita, or Dona Herminia, as she now was called, walked briskly
across the meadow and sat down on the stone which had come to be called
for her. She spoke to each in turn, but did not ask for news. She had
ceased long since to do that. She still came because the habit held her,
and because she liked the women.
"Ah, Mariquita," she said, "the linen is not as fine as when we were
young. And thou art glad to get the shirts of the Americans now. My poor
Faquita!"
"Coarse things," said Mariquita, disdainfully. Then a silence fell,
so sudden and so suggestive that Dona Herminia felt it and turned
instinctively to Mariquita.
"What is it?" she asked rapidly. "Is there news to-day? Of what?"
Mariquita's honest face was grave and important.
"There is news, senorita," she said.
"What is it?"
The washing-women had dropped back from the tubs and were listening
intently.
"Ay!" The oracle drew a long breath. "There is war over there, you know,
senorita," she said, making a vague gesture toward the Atlantic states.
"Yes, I know. Is it decided? Is the North or the South victorious? I am
glad that the wash-tub mail has not--"
"It is not that, senorita."
"Then what?"
"The Lieutenant--he is a great general now."
"Ay!"
"He has won a great battle--And--they speak of his wife, senorita."
Dona Herminia closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them and
glanced slowly about her. The blue bay, the solemn pines, the golden
atmosphere, the cemetery on the hill, the women washing at the stone
tubs--all was unchanged. Only the flimsy wooden houses of the Americans
scattered among the adobes of the town and the aging faces of the women
who had been young in her brief girlhood marked the lapse of years.
There was a smile on her lips. Her monotonous life must have given her
insanity or infinite peace, and peace had been her portion. In a few
minutes she said good-by to the women and went home. She never went to
the tubs again.
THE CONQUEST OF DONA JACOBA
I
A forest of willows cut by a forking creek, and held apart here and
there by fields of yellow mustard blossoms fluttering in their pale
green nests, or meadows carpeted with the tiny white and yellow flowers
of early summer. Wide patches of blue where the willows ended, and
immense banks of daisies bordering fields of golden grain, bending and
shimmering in the wind with the deep even sweep of rising tide. Then the
lake, long, irregular, half choked with tules, closed by a marsh. The
valley framed by mountains of purplish gray, dull brown, with patches of
vivid green and yellow; a solitary gray peak, barren and rocky, in
sharp contrast to the rich Californian hills; on one side fawn-coloured
slopes, and slopes with groves of crouching oaks in their hollows;
opposite and beyond the cold peak, a golden hill rising to a mount of
earthy green; still lower, another peak, red and green, mulberry and
mould; between and afar, closing the valley, a line of pink-brown
mountains splashed with blue.
Such was a fragment of Don Roberto Duncan's vast rancho, Los Quervos,
and on a plateau above the willows stood the adobe house, white and
red-tiled, shaped like a solid letter H. On the deep veranda, sunken
between the short forearms of the H, Dona Jacoba could stand and issue
commands in her harsh imperious voice to the Indians in the rancheria
among the willows, whilst the long sala behind overflowed with the gay
company her famous hospitality had summoned, the bare floor and ugly
velvet furniture swept out of thought by beautiful faces and flowered
silken gowns.
Behind the sala was an open court, the grass growing close to the great
stone fountain. On either side was a long line of rooms, and above the
sala was a library opening into the sleeping room of Dona Jacoba on one
side, and into that of Elena, her youngest and loveliest daughter, on
the other. Beyond the house were a dozen or more buildings: the kitchen;
a room in which steers and bullocks, sheep and pigs, were hanging;
a storehouse containing provisions enough for a hotel; and the
manufactories of the Indians. Somewhat apart was a large building with
a billiard-room in its upper story and sleeping rooms below. From her
window Elena could look down upon the high-walled corral with its
prancing horses always in readiness for the pleasure-loving guests, and
upon the broad road curving through the willows and down the valley.
The great house almost shook with life on this brilliant day of the
month of June, 1852. Don Roberto Duncan, into whose shrewd Scotch hands
California had poured her wealth for forty years, had long ago taken
to himself a wife of Castilian blood; to-morrow their eldest remaining
daughter was to be married to a young Englishman, whose father had been
a merchant in California when San Francisco was Yerba Buena. Not a room
was vacant in the house. Young people had come from Monterey and San
Francisco, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Beds had been put up in the
library and billiard-room, in the store-rooms and attics. The corral was
full of strange horses, and the huts in the willows had their humbler
guests.
Francisca sat in her room surrounded by a dozen chattering girls. The
floor beneath the feet of the Californian heiress was bare, and the
heavy furniture was of uncarved mahogany. But a satin quilt covered the
bed, lavish Spanish needlework draped chest and tables, and through
the open window came the June sunshine and the sound of the splashing
fountain.
Francisca was putting the last stitches in her wedding-gown, and the
girls were helping, advising, and commenting.
"Art thou not frightened, Panchita," demanded one of the girls, "to go
away and live with a strange man? Just think, thou hast seen him but ten
times."
"What of that?" asked Francisca, serenely, holding the rich corded silk
at arm's length, and half closing her eyes as she readjusted the deep
flounce of Spanish lace. "Remember, we shall ride and dance and play
games together for a week with all of you, dear friends, before I go
away with him. I shall know him quite well by that time. And did not my
father know him when he was a little boy? Surely, he cannot be a cruel
man, or my father would not have chosen him for my husband."
"I like the Americans and the Germans and the Russians," said the girl
who had spoken, "particularly the Americans. But these English are so
stern, so harsh sometimes."
"What of that?" asked Francisca again. "Am I not used to my father?"
She was a singular-looking girl, this compound of Scotch and Spanish.
Her face was cast in her father's hard mould, and her frame was large
and sturdy, but she had the black luxuriant hair of Spain, and much
grace of gesture and expression.
"I would not marry an Englishman," said a soft voice.
Francisca raised her eyebrows and glanced coldly at the speaker, a girl
of perfect loveliness, who sat behind a table, her chin resting on her
clasped hands.
"Thou wouldst marry whom our father told thee to marry, Elena," said her
sister, severely. "What hast thou to say about it?"
"I will marry a Spaniard," said Elena, rebelliously. "A Spaniard, and no
other."
"Thou wilt do what?" asked a cold voice from the door. The girls gave a
little scream. Elena turned pale, even Francisca's hands twitched.
Dona Jacoba was an impressive figure as she stood in the doorway; a tall
unbowed woman with a large face and powerful penetrating eyes. A thin
mouth covering white teeth separated the prominent nose and square chin.
A braid of thick black hair lay over her fine bust, and a black silk
handkerchief made a turban for her lofty head. She wore a skirt of heavy
black silk and a shawl of Chinese crepe, one end thrown gracefully over
her shoulder.
"What didst thou say?" she demanded again, a sneer on her lips.
Elena made no answer. She stared through the window at the servants
laying the table in the dining room on the other side of the court, her
breath shortening as if the room had been exhausted of air.
"Let me hear no more of that nonsense," continued her mother. "A strange
remark, truly, to come from the lips of a Californian! Thy father has
said that his daughters shall marry men of his race--men who belong to
that island of the North; and I have agreed, and thy sisters are well
married. No women are more virtuous, more industrious, more religious,
than ours; but our men--our young men--are a set of drinking gambling
vagabonds. Go to thy room and pray there until supper."
Elena ran out of an opposite door, and Dona Jacoba sat down on a
high-backed chair and held out her hand for the wedding-gown. She
examined it, then smiled brilliantly.
"The lace is beautiful," she said. "There is no richer in California,
and I have seen Dona Trinidad Iturbi y Moncada's and Dona Modeste
Castro's. Let me see thy mantilla once more."
Francisca opened a chest nearly as large as her bed, and shook out a
long square of superb Spanish lace. It had arrived from the city of
Mexico but a few days before. The girls clapped their admiring hands, as
if they had not looked at it twenty times, and Dona Jacoba smoothed it
tenderly with her strong hands. Then she went over to the chest and
lifted the beautiful silk and crepe gowns, one by one, her sharp eyes
detecting no flaw. She opened another chest and examined the piles of
underclothing and bed linen, all of finest woof, and deeply bordered
with the drawn work of Spain.
"All is well," she said, returning to her chair. "I see nothing more to
be done. Thy brother will bring the emeralds, and the English plate will
come before the week is over."
"Is it sure that Santiago will come in time for the wedding?" asked
a half-English granddaughter, whose voice broke suddenly at her own
temerity.
But Dona Jacoba was in a gracious mood.
"Surely. Has not Don Roberto gone to meet him? He will be here at four
to-day."
"How glad I shall be to see him!" said Francisca. "Just think, my
friends, I have not seen him for seven years. Not since he was eleven
years old. He has been on that cold dreadful island in the North all
this time. I wonder has he changed!"
"Why should he change?" asked Dona Jacoba. "Is he not a Cortez and a
Duncan? Is he not a Californian and a Catholic? Can a few years in an
English school make him of another race? He is seven years older, that
is all."
"True," assented Francisca, threading her needle; "of course he could
not change."
Dona Jacoba opened a large fan and wielded it with slow curves of her
strong wrist. She had never been cold in her life, and even a June day
oppressed her.
"We have another guest," she said in a moment--"a young man, Don Dario
Castanares of Los Robles Rancho. He comes to buy cattle of my husband,
and must remain with us until the bargain is over."
Several of the girls raised their large black eyes with interest. "Don
Dario Castanares," said one; "I have heard of him. He is very rich and
very handsome, they say."
"Yes," said Dona Jacoba, indifferently. "He is not ugly, but much too
dark. His mother was an Indian. He is no husband, with all his leagues,
for any Californian of pure Castilian blood."
II
Elena had gone up to her room, and would have locked the door had she
possessed a key. As it was, she indulged in a burst of tears at the
prospect of marrying an Englishman, then consoled herself with the
thought that her best-beloved brother would be with her in a few hours.
She bathed her face and wound the long black coils about her shapely
head. The flush faded out of her white cheeks, and her eyelids were less
heavy. But the sadness did not leave her eyes nor the delicate curves of
her mouth. She had the face of the Madonna, stamped with the heritage of
suffering; a nature so keenly capable of joy and pain that she drew both
like a magnet, and would so long as life stayed in her.
She curled herself in the window-seat, looking down the road for the
gray cloud of dust that would herald her brother. But only black flocks
of crows mounted screaming from the willows, to dive and rise again.
Suddenly she became conscious that she was watched, and her gaze swept
downward to the corral. A stranger stood by the gates, giving orders to
a vaquero but looking hard at her from beneath his low-dropped sombrero.
He was tall, this stranger, and very slight. His face was nearly as dark
as an Indian's, but set with features so perfect that no one but Dona
Jacoba had ever found fault with his skin. Below his dreaming ardent
eyes was a straight delicate nose; the sensuous mouth was half parted
over glistening teeth and but lightly shaded by a silken mustache. About
his graceful figure hung a dark red serape embroidered and fringed
with gold, and his red velvet trousers were laced, and his yellow
riding-boots gartered, with silver.
Elena rose quickly and pulled the curtain across the window; the blood
had flown to her hair, and a smile chased the sadness from her mouth.
Then she raised her hands and pressed the palms against the slope of the
ceiling, her dark upturned eyes full of terror. For many moments she
stood so, hardly conscious of what she was doing, seeing only the
implacable eyes of her mother. Then down the road came the loud regular
hoof-falls of galloping horses, and with an eager cry she flung aside
the curtain, forgetting the stranger.
Down the road, half hidden by the willows, came two men. When they
reached the rancheria, Elena saw the faces: a sandy-haired hard-faced
old Scotsman, with cold blue eyes beneath shaggy red brows, and a dark
slim lad, every inch a Californian. Elena waved her handkerchief and the
lad his hat. Then the girl ran down the stairs and over to the willows.
Santiago sprang from his horse, and the brother and sister clung
together kissing and crying, hugging each other until her hair fell down
and his hat was in the dust.
"Thou hast come!" cried Elena at last, holding him at arm's length
that she might see him better, then clinging to him again with all her
strength. "Thou never wilt leave me again--promise me! Promise me, my
Santiago! Ay, I have been so lonely."
"Never, my little one. Have I not longed to come home that I might be
with you? O my Elena! I know so much. I will teach you everything."
"Ay, I am proud of thee, my Santiago! Thou knowest more than any boy in
California--I know."
"Perhaps that would not be much," with fine scorn. "But come, Elena mia,
I must go to my mother; she is waiting. She looks as stern as ever; but
how I have longed to see her!"
They ran to the house, passing the stranger, who had watched them with
folded arms and scowling brows. Santiago rushed impetuously at his
mother; but she put out her arm, stiff and straight, and held him back.
Then she laid her hand, with its vice-like grip, on his shoulder, and
led him down the sala to the chapel at the end. It was arranged for the
wedding, with all the pomp of velvet altar-cloth and golden candelabra.
He looked at it wonderingly. Why had she brought him to look upon this
before giving him a mother's greeting?
"Kneel down," she said, "and repeat the prayers of thy Church--prayers
of gratitude for thy safe return."
The boy folded his hands deprecatingly.
"But, mother, remember it is seven long years since I have said the
Catholic prayers. Remember I have been educated in an English college,
in a Protestant country."
Her tall form curved slowly toward him, the blood blazed in her dark
cheeks.
"What!" she screamed incredulously. "Thou hast forgotten the prayers of
thy Church--the prayers thou learned at my knee?"
"Yes, mother, I have," he said desperately. "I cannot--"
"God! God! Mother of God! My son says this to me!" She caught him by the
shoulder again and almost hurled him from the room. Then she locked her
hand about his arm and dragged him down the sala to his father's room.
She took a greenhide reata from the table and brought it down upon his
back with long sweeps of her powerful arm, but not another word came
from her rigid lips. The boy quivered with the shame and pain, but made
no resistance--for he was a Californian, and she was his mother.
III
Joaquin, the eldest son, who had been hunting bear with a number of his
guests, returned shortly after his brother's arrival and was met at the
door by his mother.
"Where is Santiago?" he asked. "I hear he has come."
"Santiago has been sent to bed, where he will remain for the present. We
have an unexpected guest, Joaquin. He leans there against the tree--Don
Dario Castanares. Thou knowest who he is. He comes to buy cattle of thy
father, and will remain some days. Thou must share thy room with him,
for there is no other place--even on the billiard-table."
Joaquin liked the privacy of his room, but he had all the hospitality of
his race. He went at once to the stranger, walking a little heavily,
for he was no longer young and slender, but with a cordial smile on his
shrewd warmly coloured face.
"The house is at your service, Don Dario," he said, shaking the
newcomer's hand. "We are honoured that you come in time for my sister's
wedding. It distresses me that I cannot offer you the best room in the
house, but, Dios! we have a company here. I have only the half of my
poor bed to offer you, but if you will deign to accept that--"
"I am miserable, wretched, to put you to such inconvenience--"
"Never think of such a thing, my friend. Nothing could give me greater
happiness than to try to make you comfortable in my poor room. Will you
come now and take a siesta before supper?"
Dario followed him to the house, protesting at every step, and Joaquin
threw open the door of one of the porch rooms.
"At your service, senor--everything at your service."
He went to one corner of the room and kicked aside a pile of saddles,
displaying a small hillock of gold in ten-and fifty-dollar slugs. "You
will find about thirty thousand dollars there. We sold some cattle a
days ago. I beg that you will help yourself. It is all at your service.
I will now go and send you some aguardiente, for you must be thirsty."
And he went out and left his guest alone.
Dario threw himself face downward on the bed. He was in love, and the
lady had kissed another man as if she had no love to spare. True, it was
but her brother she had kissed, but would she have eyes for any one else
during a stranger's brief visit? And how, in this crowded house, could
he speak a word with her alone? And that terrible dragon of a mother!
He sprang to his feet as an Indian servant entered with a glass of
aguardiente. When he had burnt his throat, he felt better. "I will stay
until I have won her, if I remain a month," he vowed. "It will be some
time before Don Roberto will care to talk business."
But Don Roberto was never too occupied to talk business. After he had
taken his bath and siesta, he sent a servant to request Don Dario
Castanares to come up to the library, where he spent most of his time,
received all his visitors, reprimanded his children, and took his
after-dinner naps. It was a luxurious room for the Californian of that
day. A thick red English carpet covered the floor; one side of the room
was concealed by a crowded bookcase, and the heavy mahogany furniture
was handsomely carved, although upholstered with horse-hair.
In an hour every detail of the transaction had been disposed of, and
Dario had traded a small rancho for a herd of cattle. The young man's
face was very long when the last detail had been arranged, but he had
forgotten that his host was as Californian as himself. Don Roberto
poured him a brimming glass of angelica and gave him a hearty slap on
the back.
"The cattle will keep for a few days, Don Dario," he said, "and you
shall not leave this house until the festivities are over. Not until
a week from to-morrow--do you hear? I knew your father. We had many a
transaction together, and I take pleasure in welcoming his son under my
roof. Now get off to the young people, and do not make any excuses."
Dario made none.
IV
The next morning at eight, Francisca stood before the altar in the
chapel, looking very handsome in her rich gown and soft mantilla. The
bridegroom, a sensible-looking young Englishman, was somewhat nervous,
but Francisca might have been married every morning at eight o'clock.
Behind them stood Don Roberto in a new suit of English broadcloth, and
Dona Jacoba in heavy lilac silk, half covered with priceless lace. The
six bridesmaids looked like a huge bouquet, in their wide delicately
coloured skirts. Their dark eyes, mischievous, curious, thoughtful,
flashed more brilliantly than the jewels they wore.
The sala and Don Roberto's room beyond were so crowded that some of the
guests stood in the windows, and many could not enter the doors; every
family within a hundred leagues had come to the wedding. The veranda was
crowded with girls, the sparkling faces draped in black mantillas or
bright rebosos, the full gay gowns fluttering in the breeze. Men in
jingling spurs and all the bravery of gold-laced trousers and short
embroidered jackets respectfully elbowed their way past brown and stout
old women that they might whisper a word into some pretty alert little
ear. They had all ridden many leagues that morning, but there was not
a trace of fatigue on any face. The court behind the sala was full of
Indian servants striving to catch a glimpse of the ceremony.
Dario stood just within the front door, his eyes eagerly fixed upon
Elena. She looked like a California lily in her white gown; even her
head drooped a little as if a storm had passed. Her eyes were absent and
heavy; they mirrored nothing of the solemn gayety of the morning; they
saw only the welts on her brother's back.
Dario had not seen her since Santiago's arrival. She had not appeared at
supper, and he had slept little in consequence; in fact, he had spent
most of the night playing _monte_ with Joaquin and a dozen other young
men in the billiard-room.
During the bridal mass the padre gave communion to the young couple, and
to those that had made confession the night before. Elena was not of the
number, and during the intense silence she drew back and stood and knelt
near Dario. They were not close enough to speak, had they dared; but the
Californian had other speech than words, and Dario and Elena made their
confession that morning.
During breakfast they were at opposite ends of the long table in the
dining room, but neither took part in the songs and speeches, the toasts
and laughter. Both had done some manoeuvring to get out of sight of the
old people, and sit at one of the many other tables in the sala, on the
corridor, in the court; but Elena had to go with the bridesmaids, and
Joaquin insisted upon doing honour to the uninvited guest. The Indian
servants passed the rich and delicate, the plain and peppered, dishes,
the wines and the beautiful cakes for which Dona Jacoba and her
daughters were famous. The massive plate that had done duty for
generations in Spain was on the table; the crystal had been cut in
England. It was the banquet of a grandee, and no one noticed the silent
lovers.
After breakfast the girls flitted to their rooms and changed their
gowns, and wound rebosos or mantillas about their heads; the men put off
their jackets for lighter ones of flowered calico, and the whole party,
in buggies or on horseback, started for a bull-fight which was to take
place in a field about a mile behind the house. Elena went in a buggy
with Santiago, who was almost as pale as she. Dario, on horseback, rode
as near her as he dared; but when they reached the fence about the field
careless riders crowded between, and he could only watch her from afar.
The vaqueros in their broad black hats shining with varnish, their black
velvet jackets, their crimson sashes, and short, black velvet trousers
laced with silver cord over spotless linen, looked very picturesque as
they dashed about the field jingling their spurs and shouting at each
other. When the bulls trotted in and greeted each other pleasantly,
the vaqueros swung their hissing reatas and yelled until the maddened
animals wreaked their vengeance on each other, and the serious work of
the day began.
Elena leaned back with her fan before her eyes, but Santiago looked on
eagerly in spite of his English training.
"Caramba!" he cried, "but that old bull is tough. Look, Elena! The
little one is down. No, no! He has the big one. Ay! yi, yi! By Jove! he
is gone--no, he has run off--he is on him again! He has ripped him up!
Brava! brava!"
A cheer as from one throat made the mountains echo, but Elena still held
her fan before the field.
"How canst thou like such bloody sport?" she asked disgustedly. "The
poor animals! What pleasure canst thou take to see a fine brute kicking
in his death-agony, his bowels trailing on the ground?"
"Fie, Elena! Art thou not a Californian? Dost thou not love the sport of
thy country? Why, look at the other girls! They are mad with excitement.
By Jove! I never saw so many bright eyes. I wonder if I shall be too
stiff to dance to-night. Elena, she gave me a beating! But tell me,
little one, why dost thou not like the bull-fight? I feel like another
man since I have seen it."
"I cannot be pleased with cruelty. I shall never get used to see beasts
killed for amusement. And Don Dario Castanares does not like it either.
He never smiled once, nor said 'Brava!'"
"Aha! And how dost thou know whether he did or not? I thought thy face
was behind that big black fan."
"I saw him through the sticks. What does 'By Jove' mean, my Santiago?"
He enlightened her, then stood up eagerly. Another bull had been brought
in, and one of the vaqueros was to fight him. During the next two hours
Santiago gave little thought to his sister, and sometimes her long
black lashes swept above the top of her fan. When five or six bulls had
stamped and roared and gored and died, the guests of Los Quervos went
home to chocolate and siesta, the others returned to their various
ranchos.
But Dario took no nap that day. Twice he had seen an Indian girl at
Elena's window, and as the house settled down to temporary calm, he saw
the girl go to the rancheria among the willows. He wrote a note, and
followed her as soon as he dared. She wore a calico frock, exactly like
a hundred others, and her stiff black hair cut close to her neck in the
style enforced by Dona Jacoba; but Dario recognized her imitation of
Elena's walk and carriage. He was very nervous, but he managed to stroll
about and make his visit appear one of curiosity. As he passed the girl
he told her to follow him, and in a few moments they were alone in
a thicket. He had hard work to persuade her to take the note to her
mistress, for she stood in abject awe of Dona Jacoba; but love of Elena
and sympathy for the handsome stranger prevailed, and the girl went off
with the missive.
The staircase led from Don Roberto's room to Dona Jacoba's; but the
lady's all-seeing eyes were closed, and the master was snoring in his
library. Malia tiptoed by both, and Elena, who had been half asleep, sat
up, trembling with excitement, and read the impassioned request for an
interview. She lifted her head and listened, panting a little. Then
she ran to the door and looked into the library. Her father was sound
asleep; there could he no doubt of that. She dared not write an answer,
but she closed the door and put her lips to the girl's ear.
"Tell him," she murmured, horrified at her own boldness--"tell him to
take me out for the contradanza tonight. There is no other chance." And
the girl went back and delivered the message.
V
The guests and family met again at supper; but yards of linen and mounds
of plate, spirited, quickly turning heads, flowered muslin gowns and
silken jackets, again separated Dario and Elena. He caught a glimpse now
and again of her graceful head turning on its white throat, or of her
sad pure profile shining before her mother's stern old face.
Immediately after supper the bride and groom led the way to the sala,
the musicians tuned their violins and guitars, and after an hour's
excited comment upon the events of the day the dancing began. Dona
Jacoba could be very gracious when she chose, and she moved among her
guests like a queen to-night, begging them to be happy, and electrifying
them with her brilliant smile. She dispelled their awe of her with
magical tact, and when she laid her hand on one young beauty's shoulder,
and told her that her eyes put out the poor candles of Los Quervos, the
girl was ready to fling herself on the floor and kiss the tyrant's feet.
Elena watched her anxiously. Her father petted her in his harsh abrupt
way. If she had ever received a kiss from her mother, she did not
remember it; but she worshipped the blinding personality of the woman,
although she shook before the relentless will. But that her mother was
pleased to be gracious tonight was beyond question, and she gave Dario a
glance of timid encouragement, which brought him to her side at once.
"At your feet, senorita," he said; "may I dare to beg the honour of the
contradanza?"
She bent her slender body in a pretty courtesy. "It is a small favour to
grant a guest who deigns to honour us with his presence."
He led her out, and when he was not gazing enraptured at the graceful
swaying and gliding of her body, he managed to make a few conventional
remarks.
"You did not like bull-fighting, senorita?"
"He watched me," she thought. "No, senor. I like nothing that is cruel."
"Those soft eyes could never be cruel. Ay, you are so beautiful,
senorita."
"I am but a little country girl, senor. You must have seen far more
beautiful women in the cities. Have you ever been in Monterey?"
"Yes, senorita, many times. I have seen all the beauties, even Dona
Modeste Castro. Once, too--that was before the Americans came--I saw the
Senorita Ysabel Herrera, a woman so beautiful that a man robbed a church
and murdered a priest for her sake. But she was not so beautiful as you,
senorita."
The blood throbbed in the girl's fair cheeks. "He must love me," she
told herself, "to think me more beautiful than Ysabel Herrera. Joaquin
says she was the handsomest woman that ever was seen."
"You compliment me, senor," she answered vaguely. "She had wonderful
green eyes. So has the Senora Castro. Mine are only brown, like so many
other girls'."
"They are the most beautiful eyes in California. They are like the
Madonna's. I do not care for green eyes." His black ones flashed their
language to hers, and Elena wondered if she had ever been unhappy. She
barely remembered where she was, forgot that she was a helpless bird in
a golden cage. Her mate had flown through the open door.
The contradanza ends with a waltz, and as Dario held her in his arms his
last remnant of prudence gave way.
"Elena, Elena," he murmured passionately, "I love thee. Dost thou not
know it? Dost thou not love me a little? Ay, Elena! I have not slept one
hour since I saw thee."
She raised her eyes to his face. The sadness still dwelt in their
depths, but above floated the soft flame of love and trust. She had no
coquetry in her straightforward and simple nature.
"Yes," she whispered, "I love thee."
"And thou art happy, querida mia? Thou art happy here in my arms?"
She let her cheek rest for a moment against his shoulder. "Yes, I am
very happy."
"And thou wilt marry me?"
The words brought her back to reality, and the light left her face.
"Ay," she said, "why did you say that? It cannot ever be."
"But it shall be! Why not? I will speak with Don Roberto in the
morning."
The hand that lay on his shoulder clutched him suddenly. "No, no," she
said hurriedly; "promise me that you will not speak to him for two or
three days at least. My father wants us all to marry Englishmen. He is
kind, and he loves me, but he is mad for Englishmen. And we can be happy
meanwhile."
The music stopped, and he could only murmur his promises before leading
her back to her mother.
He dared not take her out again, but he danced with no one else in spite
of many inviting eyes, and spent the rest of the night on the corridor,
where he could watch her unobserved. The walls were so thick at Los
Quervos that each window had a deep seat within and without. Dario
ensconced himself, and was comfortable, if tumultuous.
VI
With dawn the dancing ended, and quiet fell upon Los Quervos. But at
twelve gay voices and laughter came through every window. The family and
guests were taking their cold bath, ready for another eighteen hours of
pleasure.
Shortly after the long dinner, the iron-barred gates of the corral were
thrown open and a band of horses, golden bronze in colour, with silvern
mane and tail, silken embroidered saddles on their slender backs,
trotted up to the door. The beautiful creatures shone in the sun like
burnished armour; they arched their haughty necks and lifted their small
feet as if they were Californian beauties about to dance El Son.
The girls wore short riding-skirts, gay sashes, and little round
hats. The men wore thin jackets of brightly coloured silk, gold-laced
knee-breeches, and silver spurs. They tossed the girls upon their
saddles, vaulted into their own, and all started on a wild gallop for
the races.
Dario, with much manoeuvring, managed to ride by Elena's side. It was
impossible to exchange a word with her, for keen and mischievous ears
were about them; but they were close together, and a kind of ecstasy
possessed them both. The sunshine was so golden, the quivering visible
air so full of soft intoxication! They were filled with a reckless
animal joy of living--the divine right of youth to exist and be happy.
The bars of Elena's cage sank into the warm resounding earth; she wanted
to cry aloud her joy to the birds, to hold and kiss the air as it
passed. Her face sparkled, her mouth grew full. She looked at Dario, and
he dug his spurs into his horse's flanks.
The representatives of many ranchos, their wives and daughters, awaited
the party from Los Quervos. But none pushed his way between Dario and
Elena that day. And they both enjoyed the races; they were in a mood to
enjoy anything. They became excited and shouted with the rest as the
vaqueros flew down the field. Dario bet and lost a ranchita, then bet
and won another. He won a herd of cattle, a band of horses, a saddle-bag
of golden slugs. Surely, fortune smiled on him from the eyes of Elena.
When the races were over they galloped down to the ocean and over the
cliffs and sands, watching the ponderous waves fling themselves on the
rocks, then retreat and rear their crests, to thunder on again.
"The fog!" cried some one. "The fog!" And with shrieks of mock terror
they turned their horses' heads and raced down the valley, the fog after
them like a phantom tidal wave; but they outstripped it, and sprang from
their horses at the corridor of Los Quervos with shouts of triumph and
lightly blown kisses to the enemy.
After supper they found eggs piled upon silver dishes in the sala, and
with cries of "Cascaron! Cascaron!" they flung them at each other, the
cologne and flour and tinsel with which the shells were filled deluging
and decorating them.
Dona Jacoba again was in a most gracious mood, and leaned against the
wall, an amused smile on her strong serene face. Her husband stood by
her, and she indicated Elena by a motion of her fan.
"Is she not beautiful to-night, our little one?" she asked proudly.
"See how pink her cheeks are! Her eyes shine like stars. She is the
handsomest of all our children, viejo."
"Yes," he said, something like tenderness in his cold blue eyes, "there
is no prettier girl on twenty ranchos. She shall marry the finest
Englishman of them all."
Elena threw a cascaron directly into Dario's mouth, and although the
cologne scalded his throat, he heroically swallowed it, and revenged
himself by covering her black locks with flour. The guests, like the
children they were, chased each other all over the house, up and down
the stairs; the men hid under tables, only to have a sly hand break a
cascaron on the back of their heads, and to receive a deluge down the
spinal column. The bride chased her dignified groom out into the yard,
and a dozen followed. Then Dario found his chance.
Elena was after him, and as they passed beneath a tree he turned like a
flash and caught her in his arms and kissed her. For a second she tried
to free herself, mindful that her sisters had not kissed their lovers
until they stood with them in the chapel; but she was made for love, and
in a moment her white arms were clinging about his neck. People were
shouting around them; there was time for but few of the words Dario
wished to say.
"Thou must write me a little note every day," he commanded. "Thy
brother's coat, one that he does not wear, hangs behind the door in my
room. To-morrow morning thou wilt find a letter from me in the pocket.
Let me find one there, too. Kiss me again, consuelo de mi alma!" and
they separated suddenly, to speak no more that night.
VII
The next morning, when Elena went to Joaquin's room to make the bed,
she found Dario's note in the pocket of the coat, but she had had no
opportunity to write one herself. Nor did she have time to read his
until after dinner, although it burned her neck and took away her
appetite. When the meal was over, she ran down to the willows and read
it there, then went straight to the favourite lounging-place of an old
vaquero who had adored her from the days when she used to trot about the
rancho holding his forefinger, or perch herself upon his shoulder and
command him to gallop.
He was smoking his pipe, and he looked up in some wonder as she stood
before him, flushed and panting, her eyes-darting apprehensive glances.
"Pedro," she said imperiously, "get down on thy hands and knees."
Pedro was the colour of tanned leather and very hairy, but his face
beamed with good-nature. He put his pipe between his teeth and did as
he was bidden. Elena produced the pencil and paper she had managed
to purloin from her father's table, and kneeling beside her faithful
vaquero, wrote a note on his back. It took her a long time to coin that
simple epistle, for she never had written a love-letter before. But
Pedro knelt like a rock, although his old knees ached. When the note was
finished she thrust it into her gown, and patted Pedro on the head.
"I love thee, my old man. I will make thee a new salve for thy
rheumatism, and a big cake."
As she approached the house her mother stood on the corridor watching
the young people mount, and Elena shivered as she met a fiery and
watchful eye. Yesterday had been a perfect day, but the chill of fear
touched this. She sprang on her horse and went with the rest to the
games. Her brother Joaquin kept persistently by her side, and Dario
thought it best not to approach her. She took little interest in the
games. The young men climbed the greased pole amidst soft derisive
laughter. The greased pig was captured by his tail in a tumult of
excitement, which rivalled the death of the bull, but Elena paid no
attention. It was not until Dario, restive with inaction, entered the
lists for the buried rooster, and by its head twisted it from the ground
as his horse flew by, that she was roused to interest; and as many had
failed, and as his was the signal victory of the day, he rode home
somewhat consoled.
That night, as Dario and Elena danced the contradanza together, they
felt the eyes of Dona Jacoba upon them, but he dared to whisper:--
"To-morrow morning I speak with thy father. Our wedding-day must be set
before another sun goes down."
"No, no!" gasped Elena; but for once Dario would not listen.
VIII
As soon as Elena had left his room next morning, Dario returned and read
the note she had put in her brother's pocket. It gave him courage, his
dreamy eyes flashed, his sensitive mouth curved proudly. As soon as
dinner was over he followed Don Roberto up to the library. The old man
stretched himself out in the long brass and leather chair which had been
imported from England for his comfort, and did not look overjoyed when
his guest begged a few moments' indulgence.
"I am half asleep," he said. "Is it about those cattle? Joaquin knows as
much about them as I do."
Dario had not been asked to sit down, and he stood before Don Roberto
feeling a little nervous, and pressing his hand against the mantelpiece.
"I do not wish to speak of cattle, senor."
"No? What then?" The old man's face was flushed with wine, and his
shaggy brows were drooping heavily.
"It is--it is about Elena."
The brows lifted a little.
"Elena?"
"Yes, senor. We love each other very much. I wish to ask your permission
that we may be married."
The brows went up with a rush; the stiff hairs stood out like a roof
above the cold angry eyes. For a moment Don Roberto stared at the
speaker as if he had not heard; then he sprang to his feet, his red face
purple.
"Get out of my house, you damned vagabond!" he shouted. "Go as fast as
God Almighty'll let you. You marry my daughter,--you damned Indian! I
wouldn't give her to you if you were pure-blooded Castilian, much less
to a half-breed whelp. And you have dared to make love to her. Go! Do
you hear? Or I'll kick you down the stairs!"
Dario drew himself up and looked back at his furious host with a pride
that matched his own. The blood was smarting in his veins, but he made
no sign and walked down the stair.
Don Roberto went at once in search of his wife. Failing to find her, he
walked straight into the sala, and taking Elena by the arm before the
assembled guests, marched her upstairs and into her room, and locked the
door with his key.
Elena fell upon the floor and sobbed with rebellious mortification and
terror. Her father had not uttered a word, but she knew the meaning of
his summary act, and other feelings soon gave way to despair. That she
should never see Dario Castanares again was certain, and she wept and
prayed with all the abandon of her Spanish nature. A picture of the
Virgin hung over the bed, and she raised herself on her knees and lifted
her clasped hands to it beseechingly. With her tumbled hair and white
face, her streaming upturned eyes and drawn mouth, she looked more like
the Mater Dolorosa than the expressionless print she prayed to.
"Mary! Mother!" she whispered, "have mercy on thy poor little daughter.
Give him to me. I ask for nothing else in this world. I do not care for
gold or ranchos, only to be his wife. I am so lonely, my mother, for
even Santiago thinks of so many other things than of me. I only want to
be loved, and no one else will ever love me who can make me love him.
Ay! give him to me! give him to me!" And she threw herself on her face
once more, and sobbed until her tears were exhausted. Then she dragged
herself to the window and leaned over the deep seat. Perhaps she might
have one glimpse of him as he rode away.
She gave a little cry of agony and pleasure. He was standing by the
gates of the corral whilst the vaqueros rounded up the cattle he had
bought. His arms were folded, his head hung forward. As he heard her
cry, he lifted his face, and Elena saw the tears in his eyes. For the
moment they gazed at each other, those lovers of California's long-ago,
while the very atmosphere quivering between them seemed a palpable
barrier. Elena flung out her arms with a sudden passionate gesture; he
gave a hoarse cry, and paced up and down like a race-horse curbed with a
Spanish bit. How to have one last word with her? If she were behind the
walls of the fort of Monterey it would be as easy. He dared not speak
from where he was. Already the horses were at the door to carry the
eager company to a fight between a bull and a bear. But he could write a
note if only he had the materials. It was useless to return to his room,
for Joaquin was there; and he hoped never to see that library again. But
was there ever a lover in whom necessity did not develop the genius of
invention? Dario flashed upward a glance of hope, then took from his
pocket a slip of the rice-paper used for making cigaritos. He burnt a
match, and with the charred stump scrawled a few lines.
"Elena! Mine! Star of my life! My sweet! Beautiful and idolized.
Farewell! Farewell, my darling! My heart is sad. God be with thee.
"DARIO."
He wrapped the paper about a stone, and tied it with a wisp of grass.
With a sudden flexile turn of a wrist that had thrown many a reata, he
flung it straight through the open window. Elena read the meaningless
phrases, then fell insensible to the floor.
IX
It was the custom of Dona Jacoba personally to oversee her entire
establishment every day, and she always went at a different hour, that
laziness might never feel sure of her back. To-day she visited the
rancheria immediately after dinner, and looked through every hut with
her piercing eyes. If the children were dirty, she peremptorily ordered
their stout mammas to put them into the clean clothes which her bounty
had provided. If a bed was unmade, she boxed the ears of the owner and
sent her spinning across the room to her task. But she found little to
scold about; her discipline was too rigid. When she was satisfied that
the huts were in order, she went down to the great stone tubs sunken
in the ground, where the women were washing in the heavy shade of the
willows. In their calico gowns they made bright bits of colour against
the drooping green of the trees.
"Maria," she cried sharply, "thou art wringing that fine linen too
harshly. Dost thou wish to break in pieces the bridal clothes of thy
senorita? Be careful, or I will lay the whip across thy shoulders."
She walked slowly through the willows, enjoying the shade. Her fine old
head was held sternly back, and her shoulders were as square as her
youngest son's; but she sighed a little, and pressed a willow branch
to her face with a caressing motion. She looked up to the gray
peak standing above its fellows, bare, ugly, gaunt. She was not an
imaginative woman, but she always had felt in closer kinship with that
solitary peak than with her own blood. As she left the wood and saw
the gay cavalcade about to start--the burnished horses, the dashing
caballeros, the girls with their radiant faces and jaunty habits--she
sighed again. Long ago she had been the bride of a brilliant young
Mexican officer for a few brief years; her youth had gone with his life.
She avoided the company and went round to the buildings at the back
of the house. Approving here, reproaching there, she walked leisurely
through the various rooms where the Indians were making lard, shoes,
flour, candles. She was in the chocolate manufactory when her husband
found her.
"Come--come at once," he said. "I have good news for thee."
She followed him to his room, knowing by his face that tragedy had
visited them. But she was not prepared for the tale he poured forth with
violent interjections of English and Spanish oaths. She had detected
a flirtation between her daughter and the uninvited guest, and not
approving of flirtations, had told Joaquin to keep his eyes upon them
when hers were absent; but that the man should dare and the girl should
stoop to think of marriage wrought in her a passion to which her
husband's seemed the calm flame of a sperm-candle.
"What!" she cried, her hoarse voice breaking. "What! A half-breed
aspire to a Cortez!" She forgot her husband's separateness with true
Californian pride. "My daughter and the son of an Indian! Holy God! And
she has dared!--she has dared! The little imbecile! The little--But,"
and she gave a furious laugh, "she will not forget again."
She caught the greenhide reata from the nail and went up the stair.
Crossing the library with heavy tread, as if she would stamp her rage
through the floor, she turned the key in the door of her daughter's room
and strode in. The girl still lay on the floor, although consciousness
had returned. As Elena saw her mother's face she cowered pitifully.
That terrible temper seldom dominated the iron will of the woman, but
Santiago had shaken it a few days ago, and Elena knew that her turn had
come.
Dona Jacoba shut the door and towered above her daughter, red spots on
her face, her small eyes blazing, an icy sneer on her mouth. She did not
speak a word. She caught the girl by her delicate shoulder, jerked her
to her feet, and lashed her with the heavy whip until screams mingled
with the gay laughter of the parting guests. When she had beaten her
until her own arm ached, she flung her on the bed and went out and
locked the door.
Elena was insensible again for a while, then lay dull and inert for
hours. She had a passive longing for death. After the suffering and the
hideous mortification of that day there seemed no other climax. The
cavalcade rode beneath her windows once more, with their untired
laughter, their splendid vitality. They scattered to their rooms to don
their bright evening gowns, then went to the dining room and feasted.
After supper Francisca unlocked Elena's door and entered with a little
tray on her hand. Elena refused to eat, but her sister's presence roused
her, and she turned her face to the wall and burst into tears.
"Nonsense!" said Francisca, kindly. "Do not cry, my sister. What is
a lover? The end of a little flirtation? My father will find thee a
husband--a strong fair English husband like mine. Dost thou not prefer
blondes to brunettes, my sister? I am sorry my mother beat thee, but she
has such a sense of her duty. She did it for thy good, my Elena. Let me
dress thee in thy new gown, the white silk with the pale blue flowers.
It is high in the neck and long in the sleeves, and will hide the marks
of the whip. Come down and play cascarones and dance until dawn and
forget all about it."
But Elena only wept on, and Francisca left her for more imperative
duties.
The next day the girl still refused to eat, although Dona Jacoba opened
her mouth and poured a cup of chocolate down her throat. Late in the
afternoon Santiago slipped into the room and bent over her.
"Elena," he whispered hurriedly. "Look! I have a note for thee."
Elena sat upright on the bed, and he thrust a piece of folded paper into
her hand. "Here it is. He is in San Luis Obispo and says he will stay
there. Remember it is but a few miles away. My--"
Elena sank back with a cry, and Santiago blasphemed in English. Dona
Jacoba unlocked her daughter's hand, took the note, and led Santiago
from the room. When she reached her own, she opened a drawer and handed
him a canvas bag full of gold.
"Go to San Francisco and enjoy yourself," she said. "Interfere no
farther between your sister and your parents, unless you prefer that
reata to gold. Your craft cannot outwit mine, and she will read no
notes. You are a foolish boy to set your sense against your mother's. I
may seem harsh to my children, but I strive on my knees for their good.
And when I have made up my mind that a thing is right to do, you know
that my nature is of iron. No child of mine shall marry a lazy vagabond
who can do nothing but lie in a hammock and bet and gamble and make
love. And a half-breed! Mother of God! Now go to San Francisco, and send
for more money when this is gone."
Santiago obeyed. There was nothing else for him to do.
Elena lay in her bed, scarcely touching food. Poor child! her nature
demanded nothing of life but love, and that denied her, she could
find no reason for living. She was not sport-loving like Joaquin, nor
practical like Francisca, nor learned like Santiago, nor ambitious
to dance through life like her many nieces. She was but a clinging
unreasoning creature, with warm blood and a great heart. But she no
longer prayed to have Dario given her. It seemed to her that after such
suffering her saddened and broken spirit would cast its shadows over her
happiest moments, and she longed only for death.
Her mother, becoming alarmed at her increasing weakness, called in an
old woman who had been midwife and doctor of the county for half a
century. She came, a bent and bony woman who must have been majestic in
her youth. Her front teeth were gone, her face was stained with dark
splashes like the imprint of a pre-natal hand. Over her head she wore a
black shawl; and she looked enough like a witch to frighten her patients
into eternity had they not been so well used to her. She prodded Elena
all over as if the girl were a loaf of bread and her knotted fingers
sought a lump of flour in the dough.
"The heart," she said to Dona Jacoba with sharp emphasis, her back teeth
meeting with a click, as if to proclaim their existence. "I have no
herbs for that," and she went back to her cabin by the ocean.
That night Elena lifted her head suddenly. From the hill opposite her
window came the sweet reverberation of a guitar: then a voice, which,
though never heard by her in song before, was as unmistakable as if it
had serenaded beneath her window every night since she had known Dario
Castanares.
EL ULTIMO ADIOS
"Si dos con el alma
Se amaron en vida,
Y al fin se separan
En vida las dos;
Sabeis que es tan grande
Le pena sentida
Que con esa palabra
Se dicen adios.
Y en esa palabra
Que breve murmura,
Ni verse prometen
Niamarse se juran;
Que en esa palabra
Se dicen adios.
No hay queja mas honda,
Suspiro mas largo;
Que aquellas palabras
Que dicen adios.
Al fin ha llegado,
La muerte en la vida;
Al fin para entrambos
Muramos los dos:
Al fin ha llegado
La hora cumplida,
Del ultimo adios.
Ya nunca en la vida,
Gentil companera
Ya nunca volveremos
A vernos los dos:
Por eso es tan triste
Mi acento postrere,
Por eso es tan triste
El ultimo adios."--
They were dancing downstairs; laughter floated through the open windows.
Francisca sang a song of the bull-fight, in her strong high voice; the
frogs chanted their midnight mass by the creek in the willows; the
coyotes wailed; the owls hooted. But nothing could drown that message of
love. Elena lit a candle and held it at arm's length before the window.
She knew that its ray went straight through the curtains to the singer
on the hill, for his voice broke suddenly, then swelled forth in
passionate answer. He sat there until dawn singing to her; but the next
night he did not come, and Elena knew that she had not been his only
audience.
X
The week of festivity was over; the bridal pair, the relatives, the
friends went away. Quiet would have taken temporary possession of Los
Quervos had it not been for the many passing guests lavishly entertained
by Don Roberto.
And still Elena lay in her little iron bed, refusing to get out of it,
barely eating, growing weaker and thinner every day. At the end of three
weeks Dona Jacoba was thoroughly alarmed, and Don Roberto sent Joaquin
to San Francisco for a physician.
The man of science came at the end of a week. He asked many questions,
and had a long talk with his patient. When he left the sick-room, he
found Don Roberto and Dona Jacoba awaiting him in the library. They were
ready to accept his word as law, for he was an Englishman, and had won
high reputation during his short stay in the new country.
He spoke with curt directness. "My dear sir, your child is dying because
she does not wish to live. People who write novels call it dying of a
broken heart; but it does not make much difference about the name.
Your child is acutely sensitive, and has an extremely delicate
constitution--predisposition to consumption. Separation from the young
man she desires to marry has prostrated her to such an extent that she
is practically dying. Under existing circumstances she will not live
two months, and, to be brutally frank, you will have killed her. I
understand that the young man is well-born on his father's side, and
possessed of great wealth. I see no reason why she should not marry him.
I shall leave her a tonic, but you can throw it out of the window unless
you send for the young man," and he walked down the stair and made ready
for his departure.
Don Roberto translated the verdict to his wife. She turned very gray,
and her thin lips pressed each other. But she bent her head. "So be it,"
she said; "I cannot do murder. Send for Dario Castanares."
"And tell him to take her to perdition," roared the old man. "Never let
me see her again."
He went down the stair, filled a small bag with gold, and gave it to the
doctor. He found Joaquin and bade him go for Dario, then shut himself in
a remote room, and did not emerge until late that day.
Dona Jacoba sent for the maid, Malia.
"Bring me one of your frocks," she said, "a set of your undergarments, a
pair of your shoes and stockings." She walked about the room until
the girl's return, her face terrible in its repressed wrath, its gray
consciousness of defeat. When Malia came with the garments she told her
to follow, and went into Elena's room and stood beside the bed.
"Get up," she said. "Dress thyself in thy bridal clothes. Thou art going
to marry Dario Castanares to-day."
The girl looked up incredulously, then closed her eyes wearily.
"Get up," said her mother. "The doctor has said that we must let our
daughter marry the half-breed or answer to God for her murder." She
turned to the maid: "Malia, go downstairs and make a cup of chocolate
and bring it up. Bring, too, a glass of angelica."
But Elena needed neither. She forgot her desire for death, her
misgivings of the future; she slipped out of bed, and would have taken a
pair of silk stockings from the chest, but her mother stopped her with
an imperious gesture, and handed her the coarse shoes and stockings the
maid had brought. Elena raised her eyes wonderingly, but drew them
on her tender feet without complaint. Then her mother gave her the
shapeless undergarments, the gaudy calico frock, and she put them on.
When the maid returned with the chocolate and wine, she drank both. They
gave her colour and strength; and as she stood up and faced her mother,
she had never looked more beautiful nor more stately in the silken gowns
that were hers no longer.
[Illustration: "HE BENT DOWN AND CAUGHT HER IN HIS ARMS."]
"There are horses' hoofs," said Dona Jacoba. "Leave thy father's house
and go to thy lover."
Elena followed her from the room, walking steadily, although she was
beginning to tremble a little. As she passed the table in the library,
she picked up an old silk handkerchief of her father's and tied it about
her head and face. A smile was on her lips, but no joy could crowd the
sadness from her eyes again. Her spirit was shadowed; her nature had
come to its own.
They walked through the silent house, and to Elena's memory came the
picture of that other bridal, when the very air shook with pleasure and
the rooms were jewelled with beautiful faces; but she would not have
exchanged her own nuptials for her sister's calm acceptance.
When she reached the veranda she drew herself up and turned to her
mother with all that strange old woman's implacable bearing.
"I demand one wedding present," she said. "The greenhide reata. I wish
it as a memento of my mother."
Dona Jacoba, without the quiver of a muscle, walked into her husband's
room and returned with the reata and handed it to her. Then Elena turned
her back upon her father's house and walked down the road through the
willows. Dario did not notice the calico frock or the old handkerchief
about her head. He bent down and caught her in his arms and kissed her,
then lifting her to his saddle, galloped down the road to San Luis
Obispo. Dona Jacoba turned her hard old face to the wall.
A RAMBLE WITH EULOGIA[1]
[Footnote 1: Pronounced a-oo-lo-hia.]
I
Dona Pomposa crossed her hands on her stomach and twirled her thumbs. A
red spot was in each coffee-coloured cheek, and the mole in her scanty
eyebrow jerked ominously. Her lips were set in a taut line, and her
angry little eyes were fixed upon a girl who sat by the window strumming
a guitar, her chin raised with an air of placid impertinence.
"Thou wilt stop this nonsense and cast no more glances at Juan Tornel!"
commanded Dona Pomposa. "Thou little brat! Dost thou think that I am
one to let my daughter marry before she can hem? Thank God we have more
sense than our mothers! No child of mine shall marry at fifteen. Now
listen--thou shalt be locked in a dark room if I am kept awake again
by that hobo serenading at thy window. To-morrow, when thou goest to
church, take care that thou throwest him no glance. Dios de mi alma!
I am worn out! Three nights have I been awakened by that _tw-a-n-g,
tw-a-n-g."_
"You need not be afraid," said her daughter, digging her little heel
into the floor. "I shall not fall in love. I have no faith in men."
Her mother laughed outright in spite of her anger.
"Indeed, my Eulogia! Thou art very wise. And why, pray, hast thou no
faith in men?"
Eulogia tossed the soft black braid from her shoulder, and fixed her
keen roguish eyes on the old lady's face.
"Because I have read all the novels of the Senor Dumas, and I well know
all those men he makes. And they never speak the truth to women; always
they are selfish, and think only of their own pleasure. If the women
suffer, they do not care; they do not love the women--only themselves.
So I am not going to be fooled by the men. I shall enjoy life, but I
shall think of _myself_, not of the men."
Her mother gazed at her in speechless amazement. She never had read a
book in her life, and had not thought of locking from her daughter
the few volumes her dead husband had collected. Then she gasped with
consternation.
"Por Dios, senorita, a fine woman thou wilt make of thyself with such
ideas! a nice wife and mother--when the time comes. What does Padro
Flores say to that, I should like to know? It is very strange that he
has let you read those books."
"I have never told him," said Eulogia, indifferently.
"What!" screamed her mother. "You never told at confession?"
"No, I never did. It was none of his business what I read. Reading is no
sin. I confessed all--"
"Mother of God!" cried Dona Pomposa, and she rushed at Eulogia with
uplifted hand; but her nimble daughter dived under her arm with a
provoking laugh, and ran out of the room.
That night Eulogia pushed aside the white curtain of her window and
looked out. The beautiful bare hills encircling San Luis Obispo were
black in the silvered night, but the moon made the town light as day.
The owls were hooting on the roof of the mission; Eulogia could see them
flap their wings. A few Indians were still moving among the dark huts
outside the walls, and within, the padre walked among his olive trees.
Beyond the walls the town was still awake. Once a horseman dashed
down the street, and Eulogia wondered if murder had been done in the
mountains; the bandits were thick in their fastnesses. She did wish
she could see one. Then she glanced eagerly down the road beneath
her window. In spite of the wisdom she had accepted from the French
romanticist, her fancy was just a little touched by Juan Tornel. His
black flashing eyes could look so tender, and he rode so beautifully.
She twitched the curtain into place and ran across the room, her feet
pattering on the bare floor, jumped into her little iron bed, and drew
the dainty sheet to her throat. A ladder had fallen heavily against the
side of the house.
She heard an agile form ascend and seat itself on the deep window-sill.
Then the guitar vibrated under the touch of master fingers, and a rich
sweet tenor sang to her:--
EL CORAZON
"El corazon del amor palpita,
Al oir de tu dulce voz,
Cuando mi sangre
Se pone en agitacion,
Tu eres la mas hermosa,
Tu eres la luz del dia,
Tu eres la gloria mia,
Tu eres mi dulce bien.
"Negro tienes el cabello,
Talle lineas hermosas,
Mano blanca, pie precioso,
No hay que decir en ti:--Tu
eres la mas hermosa,
Tu eres la luz del dia,
Tu eres la prenda mia,
Tu me haras morir.
"Que importa que noche y dia,
En ti sola estoy pensando,
El corazon palpitante
No cesa de repetir:--
Tu eres la mas hermosa,
Tu eres la luz del dia,
Tu eres la prenda mia,
Tu me haras morir--Eulogia!"
Eulogia lay as quiet as a mouse in the daytime, not daring to applaud,
hoping fatigue had sent her mother to sleep. Her lover tuned his guitar
and began another song, but she did not hear it; she was listening to
footfalls in the garret above. With a presentiment of what was about
to happen she sprang out of bed with a warning cry; but she was too
late. There was a splash and rattle on the window-seat, a smothered
curse, a quick descent, a triumphant laugh from above. Eulogia stamped
her foot with rage. She cautiously raised the window and passed her hand
along the outer sill. This time she beat the casement with both hands:
they were covered with warm ashes.
"Well, my daughter, have I not won the battle?" said a voice behind her,
and Eulogia sat down on the window-seat and swung her feet in silent
wrath.
Dona Pomposa wore a rather short night-gown, and her feet were encased
in a pair of her husband's old boots. Her hair was twisted under a red
silk kerchief, and again she crossed her hands on her stomach, but the
thumbs upheld a candle. Eulogia giggled suddenly.
"What dost thou laugh at, senorita? At the way I have served thy lover?
Dost thou think he will come soon again?"
"No, mamma, you have proved the famous hospitality of the Californians
which the Americans are always talking about. You need have no more
envy of the magnificence of Los Quervos." And then she kicked her heels
against the wall.
"Oh, thou canst make sharp speeches, thou impertinent little brat; but
Juan Tornel will serenade under thy window no more. Dios! the ashes must
look well on his pretty mustachios. Go to bed. I will put thee to board
in the convent to-morrow." And she shuffled out of the room, her ample
figure swinging from side to side like a large pendulum.
II
The next day Eulogia was sitting on her window-seat, her chin resting on
her knees, a volume of Dumas beside her, when the door was cautiously
opened and her Aunt Anastacia entered the room. Aunt Anastacia was
very large; in fact she nearly filled the doorway; she also disdained
whalebones and walked with a slight roll. Her ankles hung over her feet,
and her red cheeks and chin were covered with a short black down. Her
hair was twisted into a tight knot and protected by a thick net, and she
wore a loose gown of brown calico, patterned with large red roses. But
good-nature beamed all over her indefinite features, and her little eyes
dwelt adoringly upon Eulogia, who gave her an absent smile.
"Poor little one," she said in her indulgent voice. "But it was cruel in
my sister to throw ashes on thy lover. Not but what thou art too young
for lovers, my darling,--although I had one at twelve. But times have
changed. My little one--I have a note for thee. Thy mother is out, and
he has gone away, so there can be no harm in reading it--"
"Give it to me at once"--and Eulogia dived into her aunt's pocket and
found the note.
"Beautiful and idolized Eulogia.--Adios! Adios! I came a stranger to
thy town. I fell blinded at thy feet. I fly forever from the scornful
laughter in thine eyes. Ay, Eulogia, how couldst thou? But no! I will
not believe it was thou! The dimples that play in thy cheeks, the sparks
that fly in thine eyes--Dios de mi vida! I cannot believe that they come
from a malicious soul. No, enchanting Eulogia! Consolation of my soul!
It was thy mother who so cruelly humiliated me, who drives me from thy
town lest I be mocked in the streets. Ay, Eulogia! Ay, misericordia!
Adios! Adios!
"JUAN TORNEL."
Eulogia shrugged her shoulders. "Well, my mother is satisfied, perhaps.
She has driven him away. At least, I shall not have to go to the
convent."
"Thou art so cold, my little one," said Aunt Anastacia, disapprovingly.
"Thou art but fifteen years, and yet thou throwest aside a lover as if
he were an old reboso. Madre de Dios! In your place I should have wept
and beaten the air. But perhaps that is the reason all the young men are
wild for thee. Not but that I had many lovers--"
"It is too bad thou didst not marry one," interrupted Eulogia,
maliciously. "Perhaps thou wouldst"--and she picked up her book--"if
thou hadst read the Senor Dumas."
"Thou heartless baby!" cried her indignant aunt, "when I love thee so,
and bring thy notes at the risk of my life, for thou knowest that thy
mother would pull the hair from my head. Thou little brat! to say I
could not marry, when I had twenty--"
Eulogia jumped up and pecked her on the chin like a bird. "Twenty-five,
my old mountain. I only joked with thee. Thou didst not marry because
thou hadst more sense than to trot about after a man. Is it not so, my
old sack of flour? I was but angry because I thought thou hadst helped
my mother last night."
"Never! I was sound asleep."
"I know, I know. Now trot away. I hear my mother coming," and Aunt
Anastacia obediently left her niece to the more congenial company of the
Senor Dumas.
III
The steep hills of San Luis Obispo shot upward like the sloping sides of
a well, so round was the town. Scarlet patches lay on the slopes--the
wide blossoms of the low cacti. A gray-green peak and a mulberry peak
towered, kithless and gaunt, in the circle of tan-coloured hills brushed
with purple. The garden of the mission was green with fruit trees and
silver with olive groves. On the white church and long wing lay the red
tiles; beyond the wall the dull earth huts of the Indians. Then the
straggling town with its white adobe houses crouching on the grass.
Eulogia was sixteen. A year had passed since Juan Tornel serenaded
beneath her window, and, if the truth must be told, she had almost
forgotten him. Many a glance had she shot over her prayer-book in the
mission church; many a pair of eyes, dreamy or fiery, had responded. But
she had spoken with no man. After a tempestuous scene with her mother,
during which Aunt Anastacia had wept profusely, a compromise had been
made: Eulogia had agreed to have no more flirtations until she was
sixteen, but at that age she should go to balls and have as many lovers
as she pleased.
She walked through the olive groves with Padre Moraga on the morning of
her sixteenth birthday. The new padre and she were the best of friends.
"Well," said the good old man, pushing the long white hair from his dark
face--it fell forward whenever he stooped--"well, my little one, thou
goest to thy first ball to-night. Art thou happy?"
Eulogia lifted her shoulder. Her small nose also tilted.
"Happy? There is no such thing as happiness, my father. I shall dance,
and flirt, and make all the young men fall in love with me. I shall
enjoy myself, that is enough."
The padre smiled; he was used to her.
"Thou little wise one!" He collected himself suddenly. "But thou art
right to build thy hopes of happiness on the next world alone." Then
he continued, as if he merely had broken the conversation to say the
Angelus: "And thou art sure that thou wilt be La Favorita? Truly, thou
hast confidence in thyself--an inexperienced chit who has not half the
beauty of many other girls."
"Perhaps not; but the men shall love me better, all the same. Beauty is
not everything, my father. I have a greater attraction than soft eyes
and a pretty mouth."
"Indeed! Thou baby! Why, thou art no bigger than a well-grown child, and
thy mouth was made for a woman twice thy size. Where dost thou keep that
extraordinary charm?" Not but that he knew, for he liked her better
than any girl in the town, but he felt it his duty to act the part of
curb-bit now and again.
"You know, my father," said Eulogia, coolly; "and if you have any doubt,
wait until to-morrow."
The ball was given in the long sala of Dona Antonia Ampudia, on the edge
of the rambling town. As the night was warm, the young people danced
through the low windows on to the wide corridor; and, if watchful eyes
relaxed their vigilance, stepped off to the grass and wandered among
the trees. The brown old women in dark silks sat against the wall, as
dowagers do to-day. Most of the girls wore bright red or yellow gowns,
although softer tints blossomed here and there. Silken black hair was
braided close to the neck, the coiffure finished with a fringe of
chenille. As they whirled in the dance, their full bright gowns looked
like an agitated flower-bed suddenly possessed by a wandering tribe of
dusky goddesses.
Eulogia came rather late. At the last moment her mother had wavered in
her part of the contract, and it was not until Eulogia had sworn by
every saint in the calendar that she would not leave the sala, even
though she stifled, that Dona Pomposa had reluctantly consented to take
her. Eulogia's perfect little figure was clad in a prim white silk gown,
but her cold brilliant eyes were like living jewels, her large mouth was
as red as the cactus patches on the hills, and a flame burned in either
cheek. In a moment she was surrounded by the young men who had been
waiting for her. It might be true that twenty girls in the room were
more beautiful than she, but she had a quiet manner more effective than
animation, a vigorous magnetism of which she was fully aware, and a cool
coquetry which piqued and fired the young men, who were used to more
sentimental flirtations.
She danced as airily as a flower on the wind, but with untiring
vitality.
"Senorita!" exclaimed Don Carmelo Pena, "thou takest away my breath.
Dost thou never weary?"
"Never. I am not a man."
"Ay, senorita, thou meanest--"
"That women were made to make the world go round, and men to play the
guitar."
"Ay, I can play the guitar. I will serenade thee to-morrow night."
"Thou wilt get a shower of ashes for thy pains. Better stay at home, and
prepare thy soul with three-card _monte_"
"Ay, senorita, but thou art cruel! Does no man please thee?"
"_Men_ please me. How tiresome to dance with a woman!"
"And that is all the use thou hast for us? For us who would die for
thee?"
"In a barrel of aguardiente? I prefer thee to dance with. To tell the
truth, thy step suits mine."
"Ay, senorita mia! thou canst put honey on thy tongue. God of my life,
senorita--I fling my heart at thy feet!"
"I fear to break it, senor, for I have faith that it is made of thin
glass. It would cut my feet. I like better this smooth floor. Who is
that standing by the window? He has not danced to-night?"
"Don Pablo Ignestria of Monterey. He says the women of San Luis are not
half so beautiful nor so elegant as the women of Monterey; he says they
are too dark and too small. He does not wish to dance with any one; nor
do any of the girls wish to dance with him. They are very angry."
"I wish to dance with him. Bring him to me."
"But, senorita, I tell thee thou wouldst not like him. Holy heaven! Why
do those eyes flash so? Thou lookest as if thou wouldst fight with thy
little fists."
"Bring him to me."
Don Carmelo walked obediently over to Don Pablo, although burning with
jealousy.
"Senor, at your service," he said. "I wish to introduce you to the most
charming senorita in the room."
"Which?" asked Ignestria, incuriously.
Don Carmelo indicated Eulogia with a grand sweep of his hand.
"That little thing? Why, there are a dozen prettier girls in the room
than she, and I have not cared to meet any of them!"
"But she has commanded me to take you to her, senor, and--look at the
men crowding about her--do you think I dare to disobey?"
The stranger's dark gray eyes became less insensible. He was a handsome
man, with a tall figure, and a smooth strong face; but about him hung
the indolence of the Californian.
"Very well," he said, "take me to her."
He asked her to dance, and after a waltz Eulogia said she was tired, and
they sat down within a proper distance of Dona Pomposa's eagle eye.
"What do you think of the women of San Luis Obispo?" asked Eulogia,
innocently. "Are not they handsome?"
"They are not to be compared with the women of Monterey--since you ask
me."
"Because they find the men of San Luis more gallant than the Senor Don
Pablo Ignestria!"
"Do they? One, I believe, asked to have me introduced to her!"
"True, senor. I wished to meet you that you might fall in love with me,
and that the ladies of San Luis might have their vengeance."
He stared at her.
"Truly, senorita, but you do not hide your cards. And why, then, should
I fall in love with you?"
"Because I am different from the women of Monterey."
"A good reason why I should not. I have been in every town in
California, and I admire no women but those of my city."
"And because you will hate me first."
"And if I hate you, how can I love you?"
"It is the same. You hate one woman and love another. Each is the same
passion, only to a different person out goes a different side. Let the
person loved or hated change his nature, and the passion will change."
He looked at her with more interest.
"In truth I think I shall begin with love and end with hate, senorita.
But that wisdom was not born in your little head; for sixteen years, I
think, have not sped over it, no? It went in, if I mistake not, through
those bright eyes."
"Yes, senor, that is true. I am not content to be just like other girls
of sixteen. I want to _know_--_to know._ Have you ever read any books,
senor?"
"Many." He looked at her with a lively interest now. "What ones have you
read?"
"Only the beautiful romances of the Senor Dumas. I have seen no others,
for there are not many books in San Luis. Have you read others?"
"A great many others. Two wonderful Spanish books--'Don Quixote de la
Mancha' and 'Gil Blas,' and the romances of Sir Waltere Scote--a man of
England, and some lives of famous men, senorita. A great man lent them
to me--the greatest of our Governors--Alvarado."
"And you will lend them to me?" cried Eulogia, forgetting her coquetry,
"I want to read them."
"Aha! Those cool eyes can flash. That even little voice can break in
two. By the holy Evangelists, senorita, thou shalt have every book I
possess."
"Will the Senorita Dona Eulogia favour us with a song?"
Don Carmelo was bowing before her, a guitar in his hand, his wrathful
eyes fixed upon Don Pablo.
"Yes," said Eulogia.
She took the guitar and sang a love-song in a manner which can best be
described as no manner at all; her expression never changed, her voice
never warmed. At first the effect was flat, then the subtle fascination
of it grew until the very memory of impassioned tones was florid and
surfeiting. When she finished, Ignestria's heart was hammering upon the
steel in which he fancied he had prisoned it.
IV
"Well," said Eulogia to Padre Moraga two weeks later, "am I not La
Favorita?"
"Thou art, thou little coquette. Thou hast a power over men which thou
must use with discretion, my Eulogia. Tell thy beads three times a day
and pray that thou mayest do no harm."
"I wish to do harm, my father, for men have broken the hearts of women
for ages--"
"Chut, chut, thou baby! Men are not so black as they are painted. Harm
no one, and the world will be better that thou hast lived in it."
"If I scratch, fewer women will be scratched," and she raised her
shoulders beneath the flowered muslin of her gown, swung her guitar
under her arm, and walked down the grove, the silver leaves shining
above her smoky hair.
The padre had bidden all the young people of the upper class to a picnic
in the old mission garden. Girls in gay muslins and silk rebosos were
sitting beneath the arches of the corridor or flitting under the trees
where the yellow apricots hung among the green leaves. Languid and
sparkling faces coquetted with caballeros in bright calico jackets and
knee-breeches laced with silken cord, their slender waists girt with
long sashes hanging gracefully over the left hip. The water rilled in
the winding creek, the birds carolled in the trees; but above all rose
the sound of light laughter and sweet strong voices.
They took their dinner behind the arches, at a table the length of the
corridor, and two of the young men played the guitar and sang, whilst
the others delighted their keen palates with the goods the padre had
provided.
Don Pablo sat by Eulogia, a place he very often managed to fill; but he
never had seen her for a moment alone.
"I must go soon, Eulogia," he murmured, as the voices waxed louder.
"Duty calls me back to Monterey."
"I am glad to know thou hast a sense of thy duty."
"Nothing but that would take me away from San Luis Obispo. But both my
mother and--and--a dear friend are ill, and wish to see me."
"Thou must go to-night. How canst thou eat and be gay when thy mother
and--and--a dear friend are ill?"
"Ay, Eulogia! wouldst thou scoff over my grave? I go, but it is for thee
to say if I return."
"Do not tell me that thou adorest me here at the table. I shall blush,
and all will be about my smarting ears like the bees down in the padre's
hive."
"I shall not tell thee that before all the world, Eulogia. All I ask
is this little favour: I shall send thee a letter the night I leave.
Promise me that thou wilt answer it--to Monterey."
"No, sir! Long ago, when I was twelve, I made a vow I would never write
to a man. I never break that vow."
"Thou wilt break it for me, Eulogia."
"And why for you, senor? Half the trouble in the world has been made on
paper."
"Oh, thou wise one! What trouble can a piece of paper make when it lies
on a man's heart?"
"It can crackle when another head lies on it."
"No head will ever lie here but--"
"Mine?"
"Eulogia!"
"To thee, Senorita Dona Eulogia," cried a deep voice. "May the jewels in
thine eyes shine by the stars when thou art above them. May the tears
never dim them while they shine for us below," and a caballero pushed
back his chair, leaned forward, and touched her glass with his, then
went down on one knee and drank the red wine.
Eulogia threw him a little absent smile, sipped her wine, and went on
talking to Ignestria in her soft monotonous voice.
"My friend--Graciosa La Cruz--went a few weeks ago to Monterey for a
visit. You will tell her I think of her, no?"
"I will dance with her often because she is your friend--until I return
to San Luis Obispo."
"Will that be soon, senor?"
"I told thee that would be as soon as thou wished. Thou wilt answer my
letter--promise me, Eulogia."
"I will not, senor. I intend to be wiser than other women. At the very
least, my follies shall not burn paper. If you want an answer, you will
return."
"I will _not_ return without that answer. I never can see thee alone,
and if I could, thy coquetry would not give me a plain answer. I must
see it on paper before I will believe."
"Thou canst wait for the day of resurrection for thy knowledge, then!"
V
Once more Aunt Anastacia rolled her large figure through Eulogia's
doorway and handed her a letter.
"From Don Pablo Ignestria, my baby," she said. "Oh, what a man! what a
caballero! And so smart. He waited an hour by the creek in the mission
gardens until he saw thy mother go out, and then he brought the note to
me. He begged to see thee, but I dared not grant that, ninita, for thy
mother will be back in ten minutes."
"Go downstairs and keep my mother there," commanded Eulogia, and Aunt
Anastacia rolled off, whilst her niece with unwonted nervousness opened
the letter.
"Sweet of my soul! Day-star of my life! I dare not speak to thee of love
because, strong man as I am, still am I a coward before those mocking
eyes. Therefore if thou laugh the first time thou readest that I love
thee, I shall not see it, and the second time thou mayest be more kind.
Beautiful and idolized Eulogia, men have loved thee, but never will be
cast at thy little feet a heart stronger or truer than mine. Ay, dueno
adorada, I love thee! Without hope? No! I believe that thou lovest me,
thou cold little one, although thou dost not like to think that the
heart thou hast sealed can open to let love in. But, Eulogia! Star of my
eyes! I love thee so I will break that heart in pieces, and give thee
another so soft and warm that it will beat all through the old house to
which I will take thee. For thou wilt come to me, thou little coquette?
Thou wilt write to me to come back and stand with thee in the mission
while the good padre asks the saints to bless us? Eulogia, thou hast
sworn thou wilt write to no man, but thou wilt write to me, my little
one. Thou wilt not break the heart that lives in thine.
"I kiss thy little feet. I kiss thy tiny hands. I kiss--ay, Eulogia!
Adios! Adios!
"PABLO."
Eulogia could not resist that letter. Her scruples vanished, and, after
an entire day of agonized composition, she sent these lines:--
"You can come back to San Luis Obispo.
"EULOGIA AMATA FRANCISCA GUADALUPE CARILLO."
VI
Another year had passed. No answer had come from Pablo Ignestria. Nor
had he returned to San Luis Obispo. Two months after Eulogia had sent
her letter, she received one from Graciosa La Cruz, containing the
information that Ignestria had married the invalid girl whose love for
him had been the talk of Monterey for many years. And Eulogia? Her
flirtations had earned her far and wide the title of Dona Coquetta, and
she was cooler, calmer, and more audacious than ever.
"Dost thou never intend to marry?" demanded Dona Pomposa one day, as she
stood over the kitchen stove stirring red peppers into a saucepan full
of lard.
Eulogia was sitting on the table swinging her small feet. "Why do you
wish me to marry? I am well enough as I am. Was Elena Castanares so
happy with the man who was mad for her that I should hasten to be a
neglected wife? Poor my Elena! Four years, and then consumption and
death. Three children and an indifferent husband, who was dying of love
when he could not get her."
"Thou thinkest of unhappy marriages because thou hast just heard of
Elena's death. But there are many others."
"Did you hear of the present she left her mother?"
"No." Dona Pomposa dropped her spoon; she dearly loved a bit of gossip.
"What was it?"
"You know that a year ago Elena went home to Los Quervos and begged Don
Roberto and Dona Jacoba on her knees to forgive her, and they did, and
were glad to do it. Dona Jacoba was with her when she was so ill at the
last, and just before she died Elena said: 'Mother, in that chest you
will find a legacy from me. It is all of my own that I have in the
world, and I leave it to you. Do not take it until I am dead.' And what
do you think it was? The greenhide reata."
"Mother of God! But Jacoba must have felt as if she were already in
purgatory."
"It is said that she grew ten years older in the night."
"May the saints be praised, my child can leave me no such gift. But all
men are not like Dario Castanares. I would have thee marry an American.
They are smart and know how to keep the gold. Remember, I have little
now, and thou canst not be young forever."
"I have seen no American I would marry."
"There is Don Abel Hudson."
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