"Ah, Carlos, I am too happy," she murmured. "I love you, but I cannot be
your wife with my infirmity. No, I cannot be so selfish; I will not put
upon you a burden. I love you, but let us live as we do now, for you
must never tire of me and still feel bound to me for life. I shall be
blind. I love you too well."
"Ysidria, I love you for your own dear self. Nor fear so for your sight.
The trouble is, I trust, nothing but temporary; the loss for a time of
the accommodation; it can easily be remedied when Pedirpozzo returns. So
do not let the fear of being a burden, which you can never be to me,
deter you from giving me the promise I so desire. Say you will be my
wife, Ysidria."
"I will," she replied, and then I took a ring of my mother's and placed
it on her finger.
"Let us go over to the wall and sit where I first saw you, Ysidria," I
said, "and begin the world with hope."
We started to cross the hollow, passing the atropa, which was just
sending out its early shoots. I crushed it with my foot, and ground down
each stem till not a bit of green was left, and then I placed some
stones upon it; some way I enjoyed this little act, and Ysidria joined
me in trampling down the plant.
"It is an ill-favoured thing," I said, "and does more harm than good,
but Madre Moreno, I scarcely think will thank me for destroying it, for
she always gathered its leaves for some of her medicines."
"Yes, she will, Señorito Carlos; she will thank thee," said a voice
behind us, and turning we saw Madre Moreno.
"I had come to do the same thing myself, and thou hast saved me the
labour. Why didst thou not kill it before to-day? This is a strange day
on which to kill the old plant!"
The Madre had some chips of pine in her basket; these she placed above
the plant and pouring a flask of turpentine over them, set it all afire;
then piling up chunks of hard wood, she stood back to watch the blaze.
"It is needed no more," she said, "so we will leave no vestige of it,
for it must never spring up again." We looked at the witch in silence
and wonder.
"Art thou happy, Carlos Sotos, with thy love? Thank old Madre Moreno for
it." She laughed aloud, and the wall echoed back the laugh mockingly.