When I returned home, Catalina had a hot supper ready, and I sat down,
forgetting, for the moment, the events of the day, in the odour of the
good things on the table.
"What success, Don Carlos, have you found the flowers you were searching
for?"
"Yes, Catalina, I found the plants just where I expected to find them,
and I also found at the old adobe what I did not look for." I then gave
an account of the day, however, making as modest enumeration of the
charms of Madre Moreno's niece, as I was able, for fear of exciting
Catalina's suspicions.
I began to feel that I was much interested in the beautiful Ysidria, and
hated to have old Catalina discover it, for the girls relationship to
the Madre would, I knew, be the cause of much disquiet to the good
woman.
I sat before the door long after supper, building air castles, in all of
which the fair stranger held a place. Her brilliant eyes were always
before my mind, as I had first seen them that afternoon, sometimes of a
deep blue colour, and then in a moment black as jet, when the dilated
pupil covered the iris, and then her pretty smile and graceful form each
had a great and wonderful charm for me.
The only thing that troubled me, and I tried to laugh it out of my
thoughts, was the connection with the reputed witch, but foolish as I
knew such notions to be, I was, however, unable to banish them, and I
often wished that the beautiful Ysidria was any one in the world but the
niece of Ambrosia Moreno. Not that I had any dislike for the Madre, or
that I bore her any ill will for the various misfortunes which had come
to my family through her agency, as the country people believed, but it
was unpleasant to me to think of this young creature living under the
same roof with and under the influence of such a woman as I knew the
Moreno to be, aside from her connection with el bueno Diablo, at which I
could only laugh, and a story which I knew to be encouraged by the Madre
herself, simply for the notoriety it gave her, and the power she was
enabled through this belief to exercise over the people.
Ysidria, I had already learned, was as skeptical as myself in regard to
Madre Moreno's spells, for the laughing manner in which she had spoken
of her aunt's charms and witcheries, when we were on the hill and even
in the presence of the Madre herself, convinced me of her intelligence
and education. It was not this that troubled me concerning Ysidria, but
knowing Madre Moreno as I did, and what an unscrupulous, scheming and
heartless woman she was, I felt that she had brought this lovely niece
to her home for some purpose known only to herself. Of what that purpose
could be I had not the faintest idea, but I knew the Madre never did
anything without an object.
I laughed at myself for the great interest I so suddenly felt in a
person whom I had never seen before, and then only for a few hours. But
laugh as I would, I had to own that I was something more than interested
in the stranger, and the pleasure with which I looked forward to the
promised call in the morning, and my anxiety for her recovery, plainly
showed me that my heart was fast being lost, if indeed it were not
already gone from me.
Catalina sat at the door with me after her work was done, but I was so
deep in my own thoughts, and often did not hear her remarks, that she
left me and went to her room.
I did not notice when she left, and not until the clock in the veranda
struck eleven did I become aware of the length of time I had been
dreaming awake.
The moon was shining clear and full in the blue, cloudless sky, so
bright that scarcely a star could be seen, illuminating the whole
country so that everything not in shadow could be distinguished as well
as if it were noontime.
I walked out from the garden down by the Castilian hedge and along the
road where the shadows of the oaks, with their twisted and
mistletoe-covered branches, made grotesque forms. I was very fond of
these solitary walks on moonlight nights, often going as far as the
divide, from which Bolinas and the great ocean can be seen, and where
Larsen's wayside inn now stands, but to-night there was a new sensation
of loneliness which I had never felt before, and I longed for some one
to be with me; then I began to wonder whom I would prefer for a
companion, and thought of all my friends, even to old Madre Moreno, but
none of them seemed to be the one to break the new and undefinable
loneliness. Suddenly the form of the fair stranger, with her bright eyes
and expressive face, came up before my fancy, and I exclaimed, "Yes, it
is she; it is she alone!"
"Alone!" sounded back upon my ear like a human voice, which startled me
from my reverie, and I saw that I was standing beside the old adobe,
whither I had wandered without knowing. Close at my feet lay a bit of
white cloth which attracted my attention, and I picked it up. It was a
handkerchief of fine cambric, in one corner of which was embroidered a
name, which I could easily read in the moonlight, "Ysidria."
I read the name aloud, and the great wall with its ivy glistening silver
in the light echoed back the name. At the time I was not surprised to
hear the the three syllables so fully pronounced by the echo. I enjoyed
the sound of the name, and called it again and again. "Ysidria!
Ysidria!" each time called back the ruined wall, and at last I had to
laugh as I thought of the ludicrous appearance I presented, calling
aloud a name and like a child being pleased with the voice of the unseen
spirit, but as I laughed, that too, reverberated, but the sound seemed
changed, and it made me involuntarily shudder as I remembered the scene
of that very morning, when my laugh had produced the same strange
feeling, half of awe and half of anger. I looked around as if I expected
to find some one at my side. I started at every sound, and the long,
creeping shadows made me tremble. I was certainly strong, and had often
shown myself courageous in time of danger, but the mysterious awe which
fell upon me here completely unnerved me, and a cold perspiration
started, when from the wall I heard a whisper, distinctly audible, which
pronounced the words, "Ysidria hath beautiful eyes!"
I could not move, it seemed to me as if my heart ceased beating; I
listened and strained my ears in agonizing suspense, but the voice did
not come again, and the moon dropping suddenly behind the fig trees,
cast the whole place into profound darkness.
I felt free again, and pressing the handkerchief to my lips, imprinted a
kiss upon it and then at the same moment called myself a fool for so
suddenly becoming infatuated with the stranger in whom I had not the
slightest reason for taking more than a passing interest at most, no
more than common politeness required.
Again I laughed aloud and again the same fearful, hollow echo came back
to me from the ruined wall. I could stand it no longer, and turning, ran
from the grove, over the brow of the hill to the road, fearing every
moment lest the strange spell, from which I had just recovered, should
seize me again.
As I ascended the second hill, I saw, as I looked behind me, a female
figure slowly walking down to the road from the grove of figs. I knew at
once who it was from the odd manner of wearing her reboso, and by the
lameness of her gait; it was Madre Moreno, the witch.
The thought suddenly came to me that she must have been hidden in the
ruin, and have heard me when I called the name of Ysidria, and I
mentally cursed the old hag. Then I thought of the whispered sentence,
and of the three syllabled echo; and knew they must have come from her.
"What can the awful woman have in hand?" I asked myself, "What, but some
wickedness. I wish she did not follow me so closely. Worse than all, she
may tell the fair Ysidria what a fool I made of myself over her
handkerchief; I almost wish with Catalina that the good old days were
here again." I walked home more slowly, and entering the house quietly,
reached my room just as the clock struck two.