The sun shone brightly on the morning of the widow's birthday. Not that
there was anything sensational in the fact. Except in the rainy season,
the sun always shines brightly in Chihuahua--altogether too brightly for
a white man's comfort, so while waiting for Lee, Gordon led their horses
into the shade of the 'dobe where dwelt his little playmate. Seated in
the doorway, under the pleased eyes of the brown mother, he was
initiating the chubby thing into the mysteries of "cat's cradle" with a
loop of string, when Lee came walking across from the house.
At the sight of the two heads bent over the "cradle," the girl's face
lit up with a soft glow that was not belied by her mock severity.
"Hello, Brother! What are you doing to my godchild?"
"Is this she?" Rising, he swung the child up on his shoulder. "I had
just about made up my mind to adopt her myself."
"Let me see--" Lee's smooth brow achieved a thoughtful wrinkle. "She's
about one-fiftieth of it. You know I am padrina to all that have been
born here in the last fifteen years. But this is my favorite, and I
cannot suffer you to steal her allegiance as you tried the other night.
Oh, you needn't blush! Maria brought the news with my coffee. She was
loud in your praises. 'Don Gor-r-r-don sat with Refugio's sick babe all
night. What a husband for some happy señorita!'"
"That was very nice of Maria." He laughed. "Only, I'm afraid there's
nothing doing. Girls of this size get me going, but after they grow
up--somehow I lose interest."
It was an awesome confession to make to a girl whose mirror reflected
far more than the average of feminine looks. Like a stag of ten tines
that paws the forest mold in the pride of freedom, he had marked himself
for the slaughter. It was the due of her sex that his pride be humbled.
The soft glow changed to a gleam; but her attention was drawn just then
by the prattle of two children who, unaware of the proximity of the
parties of the first and second part, were conducting a make-believe
housekeeping around the corner.
"Now I shall be Don Gor-r-r-don, and thou the señorita," came a voice,
gruff with masculine authority. "Only we be married."
"But will they be married, Pancho?" piped a softer treble.
"Si, that will they. Only an hour ago I heard thy mother and old 'Lupe
talking at the well. 'Is not Don Gor-r-r-don a fine man, and she a woman
with never a duenna to her name? 'Tis shocking, Amalia, but gringo blood
runs colder than Spanish; their ways are not ours. Yet, cold or hot,
this may not end without marriage.' This is what old 'Lupe said to thy
mother."
Rich color swept from the roots of Lee's hair down to her neck. She
hastily hid it from the observation of the party of the first part;
then, remembering that his Spanish was still confined to a few jerky
sentences, she regained her composure.
"Woman!" "Don Gor-r-r-don" was speaking again. "What is this--the
tortillas burned once more? Have I not told thee to be more sparing of
the wood I gain with my sweat? And this chile? 'Tis sour as swill, fit
only for swine."
"Then it should suit thee very well," came the softer voice, with
unexpected spirit.
"A-r-r-r-h!" It was an excellent imitation of the angry howl with which
Don Gor-r-r-don's father resented household rebellions. "Thou wouldst
answer me? Thy mouth is too big! Take this to fill it!"
Followed a wail and as Lee rushed around the corner to the rescue, Don
Gor-r-r-don scuttled like a little pig under her arm and dived into the
house. Having comforted the small housewife, Lee returned to Gordon.
"Panchito is not quite so afraid of girls as you," she teased him. "They
were playing house. Because the beans were not quite to his liking, he
handed Dolores one on the mouth."
He laughed. "The young dog! At least he has a good working idea of the
proper relation of the sexes."
This, indeed, was tempting Providence! The little gleam appeared again
and lingered till, taking her foot in one hand, he lifted her to the
saddle without perceptible effort, when it was wiped out by pleased
surprise.
Strength and tenderness? Age-long experience has taught woman to value
these above all else in man! A skilful diagnostician--the widow, for
instance--would have noted and approved her unconscious content as they
rode out through the gates and followed the trail up and down the long
earth rolls. Sometimes, when the vagaries of travel forced him ahead,
her little stealthy glances were not nearly so unconscious; displayed a
curiosity both healthy and sincere. And when, as occurred quite
frequently, their frank interest was broken by a return of the little
gleam, the diagnostician would still have concurred. For it displayed
nothing more than the pride proper in a sex which has handled--and
mishandled--man, directed his policies and intrigues, set him at the
wars, made his peaces, used him as a catspaw to pull its private
chestnuts out of the fires of love and hate, while the poor, blinded
being imagined all the time that he was following his own ends.
He "lost interest in them after they grew up." Indeed! Why, the
freshness of the morning, the creak and odor of hot leather, rhythmic
beat of hoofs, sunlit roll of pastures within the hedging mountains, all
the sights and sensations which he mistook for joy in the ride, were
nothing more than a setting for her lovely youth. The ebb and flow of
her color, easy flexures of her lithe body, counted as much in nature's
cosmogony as the rush of the winds, flush of sunset skies; only, as yet,
he did not know it. The "fire and tow" still lacked a "wind."
They headed, at first, out on the trail which led through Lovell's
_rancho_ to the widow's; but presently Lee swerved toward the hills. "It
is rougher," she said, "with a few bits of stiff climbing, but both
shorter and prettier. It follows an old, old mule trail up a wooded
cañon past a country _fonda_. There I'll show you the prettiest Mexican
girl in all Chihuahua."
"At the _fonda_? Then I have seen her."