When the evening shadows were falling over the almost palatial home of
Ruth Wakefield, the young girl whom she had begged to come to her
climbed the rugged height upon which the former United States Consul had
erected his residence hoping to occupy it long after his term of office
should expire as he had found the climate very beneficial to the health
of his entire family, as it seemed, and desired to have a fitting place
of abode during the childhood of his only and much-loved child, who,
now, a sorrowing widow and a humiliated wife, was sitting idly waiting
to receive poor Estrella, not knowing, certainly, just what she would do
or say when she had to really face the situation into which she had been
forced by untoward circumstances.
As Estrella reached the rear door, to which she had gone by an almost
unerring instinct, feeling strange and unnatural among the rich
surroundings, old Mage appeared to welcome her, as she had been directed
by her mistress to do; the old woman was greatly in doubt as to the
condition of affairs in the home she loved to be a part of and had
longed to get hold of the peon girl alone.
There was something about Ruth Wakefield that commanded the respect of
even the lowest among those who knew her ... her natural refinement had
been accentuated by her seclusion from the outer world and by her almost
constant thought of higher and better matters than the gross and humdrum
affairs of the daily life by which she was surrounded. Yet, she always
entered into practical affairs with vigor and entire understanding, so
that, while she was counted as a dreamer of dreams beyond the earth, yet
she was acknowledged to be eminently practical and able to attend to her
own business affairs with no danger of being over-reached by those with
whom she dealt as to monetary matters, as her natural acumen in such
matters had been sharpened by various experiences of a more or less
unpleasant character, such as the loss of certain sums of money through
trusting to the honor of some of those with whom she had had sympathy in
their need, for she had discovered that, when it comes to money, people
are very apt to forget their obligations entirely, only attending to
that part of life when in need themselves and not considering the fact
that, unless one gets what is one's due, at least to some extent, one
cannot, on the other hand, meet one's own obligations, so that the
lonely girl had learned some hard lessons by practical knowledge of
human nature gained in the only school where such knowledge can be
gained ... experience.
But old Mage was of a far different type of womankind ... true as steel
to her beloved young lady as she always called her in her thoughts,
although she often found verbal fault with her to her fair and tender
face ... fond of gossip and garrulous to an almost alarming extent yet
she could keep a secret as inviolate as even Ruth Wakefield herself.
At this moment, her great desire was to worm out of poor Estrella
whatever it was that had made her own young lady faint that morning ...
she was not worried about the poor girl's loss of him she had called her
lover except in so far as it affected her own people as she was fond of
distinguishing them, for old Mage, although uneducated and almost
unaware of her own nationality as her mother had died at her birth and
her father had immediately deserted her, yet prided herself on being far
superior to the natives among whom she dwelt, for she had come to Cuba
with the Wakefield family, having been employed by them as nurse for the
small Ruth and having stuck tightly to her charge from that time on.
So that, when she faced the poor, ignorant, as she secretly considered
Estrella, girl, it was with an air of superiority as belonging to a
higher race than she, for it is a fact that uneducated persons feel any
elevation above their fellows much more strongly than those who have had
more insight into the humble attainments of even the wisest of human
beings, for those who have been permitted to climb the heights of
thought have had a glimpse of the vastness and unattainable grandeur of
which even the highest human intellect must only be a spectator ... an
humble and admiring witness of the matchless beauty and majestic
splendor that dwell beyond and yet beyond the vision of the keenest
human imagination.
But old Mage seldom allowed herself even to wonder about what she could
not understand, being content with the plane of existence upon which she
found herself and finding amusement and profit as well in attending to
the various small duties of her daily life as she performed those duties
through love and pride. Having seated the girl who was almost
overpowered, already, by the unknown glamour of wealthy surroundings,
she proceeded to follow out her own ideas and to attempt to satisfy her
own curiosity before apprising Ruth of the arrival of her invited guest.
She began by commiserating the girl upon her recent loss, little
dreaming that, in this way, she would find out far more than had been
her own desire, for old Mage, while she had never liked the young man
who, for the past few months, had been an almost daily visitor at the
home she dearly loved, yet had tried to think that her young lady had
chosen wisely, even if unconventionally, when she had married him, as it
was very hard for her ever to really question any object upon which
Ruth had set her heart, it having been one of the criticisms of the
parents of the little girl that old Mage had always indulged her
slightest whim and always satisfied at least her own conscience by
finding some good reason for the indulgence; in the present instance,
she had often said to herself:
"My poor child is alone so much with her own thoughts and what she gets
out of all those big books," for what anyone could find in the way of
company in a book which required so much labor, in her own case, to
decipher at all was a mystery to her, "and she needs company ... a woman
needs a man around to make love to her and this fellow is good at that
what with his guitar and his mandolin and his fine voice, not to speak
of his wonderful dark eyes and his curly black hair and his strong,
powerful figure ... it is too bad that he is only a native Cuban instead
of an American ... that is too bad ... but..." she would end, brightly,
"he can be naturalized if we ever go back to the States."
So, now, when she turned to Estrella with the conventional question as
to the identity of her lover on her ready tongue, she little dreamed of
the consequences:
"My poor girl," she began, "you were to have been married, they tell me,
to the man who was found dead at the entrance to the prison, last
night.... I wonder if I happened to know him ... what was his name?"
She had asked the question idly, wishing only to engage the girl in
conversation to find out whatever she could.
"My lover was a wonderful man ..." declared Estrella; "he was not a
common man at all ... he was superior to all the men I know or ever have
known ... he was the handsomest as well as the most intelligent man
among the whole people of this Island, I think.... I know I never saw
anyone either so handsome or so smart as was my dear Victorio.... I
don't suppose you would ever have met him for he was not a servant and
yet he was a Cuban ... he was a wonderful man and I was to have been his
wife and he was most foully murdered there in that hateful prison."
And the poor bereft creature began to moan and sob and wring her hands
in agony of spirit.
This was not at all what Mage desired to do ... to get the girl all
wrought up before her young lady even saw her, so she tried to comfort
and calm her by speaking rather sharply to her as she knew hysteria can
only be overcome by the application of fierce remedies, or, at least,
that is what she had been taught, so, in order to cauterize the wound
her words seemed to have made, she said:
"You say your lover was a superior man ... was he, then, a leader among
the political prisoners who were liberated?"
"Indeed he was ..." proudly answered the bereaved girl. "Victorio
Colenzo was a leader where-ever he went ... why ..."
But even her pride in her dead lover did not hide from her the effect
his name had had on poor old Mage for she had crumpled down in her chair
as if she had received a stroke of some kind and seemed as if paralyzed,
for her poor old mouth fell open, revealing its entire innocence of
teeth; she gasped for breath for a moment and then demanded:
"Say that name again! What kind of looking man was he?"
Hastening to comply with the demand made on her, the girl proceeded,
proudly:
"His name was Victorio Colenzo and he was the handsomest man in the
whole of Cuba, I believe ... his eyes were very dark and expressive and
his hair was the very most beautiful curly hair that ever grew on any
human head ... he was tall and strong and handsome in every way and,
yet," she ended dreamily, "and, yet, he never loved a woman in his life
before he found me."
Old Mage had other words upon her lips than those which she said after
having hauled herself up sharply, remembering how unprotected her dear
young lady was and wishing, above all else, even her own almost
insatiable curiosity, to shield her from any harm:
"It must be a great comfort to you to know that, now that he is dead and
gone," she said to the girl, though what she added in her own mind may
as well not be recorded here, for, with all the fierceness of the
far-famed tiger with her young, old Mage, in her own primitive mind, was
wishing several distinct kinds of punishment would fall, in its
immediate future, upon the soul of the man who had brought sorrow to her
dear, innocent lamb. As far as the girl was concerned she felt that she
had had more than her just deserts already and wished to relieve her
young lady of any further torture regarding the mixed matter, for old
Mage, though an ignorant woman in many ways, had lived a great many
observant years among human men and women, and, now, that her experience
might serve to protect Ruth in this hard crisis of her young womanhood,
she threw herself and all her previous knowledge of the world right into
the breach. She reflected only for a few moments after having made the
diplomatic speech referred to above, before she decided on a course of
immediate action.
To begin with, she decided to clear the decks, as it were, of the
obstruction of the girl's presence in the home of the wronged wife; she
went about this with precision and dispatch, for, once she had settled
on any certain course, old Mage was like a mild whirlwind, scattering
everything before her:
"Well," she began, eyeing the girl suspiciously, wondering whether she
had any inkling of the exact situation, "I suppose you have folks to
live with and are not in need of anything much?"
"I am alone in this wide world," declared Estrella, "for I am but a
foster child among the people who have brought me up ... my parents I
know nothing of but believe that I am not of Cuban blood.... I
think ..." she hesitated, "I think ... I am ... an American, the same as
the sweet young lady who lives here with you."
The last few words almost undid old Mage's stern resolve, but she kept
her one idea of saving her young lady from further annoyance in view and
answered this appeal:
"It don't make much difference in this world _who_ you are but it does
matter _what_ you are ... now, I take it, you are a good girl and will
marry some good man when you have recovered from this loss ... you are
too young to feel this as deeply as you might ... I hope so, anyway ..."
she temporized, seeing the look of despair that settled on Estrella's
really beautiful and innocent features, "and my young lady wanted me to
help you if you needed any help for she feels so sorry that your lover
happened to be killed just as he was about to get free ... she wanted me
to tell you ..." but at that point in her benevolent intention she was
interrupted by the appearance of the mistress of the place, and ended,
rather lamely, "she wanted me to tell you to come to her as soon as you
got here."
"Why, Mage," said Ruth in her usual sweet, low voice, "you had not told
me that Estrella had come ... have you been waiting for me very long?"
she kindly asked the girl.
"No, Madam," said Estrella feeling the immense difference in their
positions in spite of the evident indisposition and tender youth of the
other woman, "I have only rested for a few moments after my climb to the
top of the hill. It was very kind," she added, "of you to ask me to come
and the cool air of the evening has refreshed my head for it has been
aching terribly, all day."
"Can't you find some sort of refreshments for her, Mage?" asked Ruth,
feeling sorry for the other's plight. "Maybe a good cup of tea would
give you added strength to bear your great sorrow ... we women," she
said while her sweet, low voice trembled, "we women are but weak and yet
often the very heaviest of sorrows is laid upon us.... I do not know the
reason for this ... I do not understand ... but I believe that we are
all but a part of a very great plan which is beyond our comprehension
while we are here in this finite world, and I hope ..." she had the look
of one of God's good angels on her face as she said it, "and I hope to
know more about this great plan when I have passed beyond this world
and all its many disappointments. You have had a terrific blow, my poor
Girl," she went on, kindly. "You alone must bear this grief but God has
sent other human beings into this human life so that we may help each
other, if only by our mutual sympathy, when we must meet what it seems
almost impossible for us to bear alone ... so," she ended, "so, maybe I
have been sent to try to give you courage to go on in life when your
future must look dreadfully black to you."
"It surely does look black ..." moaned poor Estrella, "Victorio was all
I had to lean upon in this wide world for I don't belong to the people
where I live and Manuello persists in making love to me and I can't bear
to have him touch me after having known the love of a man who never even
looked at any other woman but me, and who was," her pride in her dead
lover again taking the ascendency in her emotions, "the handsomest and
smartest man who ever came to Cuba."
"The low-lived pup!" said old Mage, who had just come in with the
tea-tray in her hands and heard the last few words, but she made this
remark to herself alone and would have ground her teeth in making it had
it not happened that she had mislaid those triumphs of the dentist's
art, for old Mage was the proud possessor of two entire sets of teeth,
although she seldom could lay her hands on them as she invariably
removed them from her mouth each time she wished to eat anything, having
grown so accustomed to gumming her food that the teeth were dreadfully
in her way.
She set the tea-tray with its array of cups and saucers down and added
several little concoctions of her own making to the little feast before
she began, thinking to change the subject:
"Dear Miss Ruth, I wish you could have seen little Tid-i-wats a few
minutes ago; she was out in the big yard and I wanted her to come back
in her own place so as to be safe and so instead of going to pick her up
as you know very well she won't allow anyone to do except yourself, I
just got one of her saucers and a silver spoon and pounded on the edge
of the saucer with the spoon, and here she came fairly bounding along
the driveway; she galloped, Miss Ruth, just like a little colt out in
one of our own big pastures, back home."
"The dear little Dadditts!" exclaimed her young lady, using a pet name
of her own making. "How cute she must have looked ... she is so little,"
she explained to Estrella, "she is so very small and so very cute ... I
have had her with me, now, for ... how long is it, Mage?" for she knew
the old woman enjoyed being asked for information, "since we came from
America the last time?"
"Let me see ..." answered Mage, deliberating, "it must be anyway twelve
years and Tid-i-wats was not a young cat, even then, for she had raised
one family of kittens at least ... she must be thirteen or more years
old, my Dear," she said to the young girl, hoping to attract her
attention to herself and so leave Ruth free from her immediate scrutiny,
"just think of that! You must come with me, when you have had your tea,
and see the cute little yard we have for her and then you must look over
the grounds with me. Miss Ruth is not feeling very well, today, although
she has such a healthy-looking, rosy face, and, so, I'll entertain you
while you're here; Miss Ruth is a great reader and her eyes are not very
strong ... sometimes the sun hurts them awfully."
And Ruth let here have her way, that time, as she found that she could
scarcely endure the calm, blue, staring eyes of the girl and listen to
her innocent gabble concerning her own husband; so she called old Mage
into another room and cautioned her to be very kind to poor Estrella and
gave her quite a sum of money to hand to her, thinking, in this manner
to defray the funeral expenses of the man whom she had believed to be
the very soul of honor fired with an almost holy patriotism.
Old Mage received her directions quietly enough and used her own good
judgment as to carrying them all out; her main idea was to relieve her
mistress and this she did by assuring her that she would look after the
girl and would ask her to come to see them again when she had in some
measure recovered from her sorrow.
What she was saying to her own self we will not record but she relieved
her own feelings, while attempting to help Estrella who was as innocent
as her own young lady was, as she could see, for old Mage was seldom
mistaken in her estimate of women, although men, as she expressed it,
quite often "pulled the wool over her eyes."