AMALIA'S RAGE
The next morning Paula, by command of the senora, took the child off to
the ironing-room, sat her in a high chair, and asked a young girl, who
was working at the window, for some scissors.
"What are you going to do?" Josefina asked.
"Cut your hair."
"Why? I don't want my hair cut."
Whereupon she got down from the chair with determination, but Paula
turned back and put her up again.
"Be quiet," she said severely.
"I don't want to, I don't want to," she doggedly returned.
"It is certainly a shame to cut such beautiful hair," said one of the
girls who was ironing.
"What do you mean, child? An order is an order."
And taking hold of one of the precious curls of hair, she cut it off
with the scissors.
"Leave go, Paula!" cried the child, "I am going to tell godmother."
"Yes, precious, go and tell your godmother, indeed? All right, you shall
tell her when it is done."
And paying no further heed to her protestations, and letting the words
fall on deaf ears, she went on with the task quite undisturbed. But the
child got down again, angry and furious. Then Paula called the
sempstress Concha to her assistance, and she held her down on the chair
until she was despoiled of every one of her curls, after which they
arranged what was left as best they could.
"What a pity!" said the laundress again.
"It is not so bad, child," returned Paula, combing it with admiration.
At that moment the senora appeared at the door of the room.
"Godmother! come godmother! Look, Paula and Concha have cut my hair."
Amalia advanced some steps, avoiding the child's gaze, fixed her stern
eyes upon her head and said in an imperious and cold tone:
"That is not right. Shave it off."
And she went away with a frowning brow, whilst Josefina, astonished,
followed her with her eyes. Never had she seen her godmother so cold and
stern. She was sad and thoughtful, and remained thus without making the
slightest movement, until Paula had accomplished her task.
The little head was soon as smooth as a melon. The servants shouted with
laughter.
"Child of my soul! what have they been doing to you?" exclaimed Maria,
the ironer, with a tone of regret, although she could not repress a
smile.
"Don't say that, woman," retorted Concha with a shade of bitterness.
"Yes, she does look ridiculous."
She was a woman of five-and-twenty or more, extremely small, almost as
small as Josefina, with sharp, keen eyes, and all the servants were
afraid of her.
Paula laughed too and passed her hand over the little creature's head.
"When we want a jar for the vinegar we shall know where to go for it,"
continued Concha.
The wave of pity passed away. Guessing that the child had fallen into
disgrace, the servants became quite facetious, exchanging jokes which
were not pretty, but which made them nearly die of laughter. Josefina
remained with her head down, quiet and silent. Then the jokes began to
take effect, and two tears dropped from her long eyelashes.
"Crying for your little wig? What a shame to hurt her! It is not your
fault, but theirs who brought you up like a princess, when you are only
like us, and less than us," she added in a low tone, "for we have got
fathers."
"Come, Concha, drop that! Don't fret the little monkey, you will soon
have fresh hair," said Maria, in a maternal tone.
The child, touched by the kindness, began to sob and left the room.
When she entered the drawing-room in the evening like that, the count
could not repress a gesture of anger, and cast an interrogative glance
at Amalia, who replied to the gesture and look with a provoking smile.
And in a loud voice she said that the child's hair had been cut by her
orders, for she had noticed that she was beginning to be vain. It is so!
and people flatter her so much that she has become unmanageable.
The count, enraged, immediately took the opportunity of repairing to
Fernanda's side, where he renewed the conversation of the previous
evening. The two were loquacious and affectionate. Fernanda related her
life in Paris with no lack of details; and Luis was particularly
expansive, not hiding the cheerfulness of his heart, and talking with
animation in spite of Amalia's angry glance fixed upon him. During a
pause, Fernanda raised her smiling eyes to her _ex-fiance_ and asked
him, but not without a slight blush:
"Don't you know why the child's hair has been cut?"
The count looked at her without replying.
"Because I praised it yesterday, and allowed myself to kiss it."
It was the first time that Fernanda took his secret for granted. He
felt a great shock; his face grew red, and so did hers. For some time
neither of them could speak.
During the following days the count often walked down the Calle de
Altavilla, and he spent a great deal of time in the Cafe de Maranon.
Lancian society was moved to its very foundation at such an important
turn of events, and henceforth he was an object of interest to three
hundred pairs of eyes. He gave up going every day to the Quinones'
house, and went occasionally to the de Meres' little party, as it
continued to be called in Lancia, although only one of the old ladies
was now left in this world. Carmelita had died at least three years ago.
Only Nuncia the youngest was left, and she was quite paralytic. From the
armchair to the bed, and from the bed to the armchair was all that she
could manage with great difficulty. She was also deprived of moral
support, as in her sister she lost her protector from impulse. Since she
was buried there was no one to keep her in order. With the sudden
promotion to the category of persons _sui juris_, the poor "child" was a
prey to great distress, everything worried her, everything was an
insuperable difficulty. Those sharp scoldings had been less overwhelming
to her, for if they had caused tears, they had been salutary in checking
her juvenile ebullitions, and so prevented the fatal consequences
attending her inexperience. Her guests were a few youths, and several
young men of our acquaintance, with a sufficient number of graceful,
pretty damsels who came to the house on the look out for a husband. For
the "child," in this, and in every respect, kept up religiously the
traditions bequeathed by her sister. She was the firm protector of all
the courtships that arose in Lancia, however ill-advised they might be.
The little house of the Calle del Carpio continued to be the forge,
where the conjugal happiness of the worthy neighbours of Lancia was
forged. The most constant visitor was Paco Gomez, because the house of
the Quinones was closed to him in consequence of one of his remarks. A
certain stranger meeting him in Altavilla with a few others asked him
how the Grandee came to be paralysed.
"He is not really paralysed," returned Paco, for he is not disabled at
all, only his legs can't put up with all the heraldry stuff that he has
got in his head, and so they double up rather than take a step.
This came to Quinones' ears through a traitor, and he gave orders he was
henceforth not to be received. He was the soul and the delight of the
"child's" party, and the incessant way he made fun of Nuncita kept all
the guests in a fit of laughter.
"I say, Nuncita, look! Don't talk too much, for do you know I saw your
leg, and--and--and----"
The poor octogenarian blushed like a girl of fifteen. Nothing could have
confused her more than this inopportune reference to the afternoon of
the swing. Luis and Fernanda took to seeing each other there once or
twice a week. Away from the angry eyes of Amalia, the count found it
very pleasant, and he recovered his serenity of mind. They had long
talks in a low voice without being disturbed by anybody. On the contrary
the "child" took good care to give them room and opportunity.
Nevertheless, he still visited at the Quinones' house, and he saw Amalia
secretly when she demanded it, but he was evidently colder and more
distant. She was perfectly aware of the change, but she did not show her
colours, and she did not mention his _ex-fiancee_. However, one day she
could not help doing so.
"I know that you spend a great deal of time at the de Meres' talking
with Fernanda."
He denied it in a cowardly fashion.
"Take care what you do," she continued, fixing her eyes on him, "for
treachery may cost you dear."
He was so accustomed to the dominion of this terrible woman that the
words sent a chill through him, as if some misfortune were hanging over
his head. But when he came out into the street, away from the magnetic
influence of those eyes that upset him, he was conscious of an impotent
feeling of rage. "Why, after all, should she threaten me? Is she my
wife? What right has she to me? What we are doing is a grave sin, it is
a crime. Who can deprive me of repentance, of reconciling myself with
God and being good?" Repentance had latterly been to him a vague desire
due to his love being on the wane, and to his great fear of hell. Now it
had changed into a real wish. Certainly it offered several attractions.
He would renounce the sin bravely, purify himself, free himself from
eternal fire--and then have Fernanda.
For some time past there had been only one bright spot in his criminal
connection with Amalia--and that was Josefina. This little creature,
white and silent as a snow-drop, sweet as a lily with the innocence of a
dove, and the tender melancholy of a moonlight night, was like a
delicious, refreshing balsam to his soul--a prey to remorse. How often,
when holding her in his arms, he had asked with surprise how such an
innocent, pure, divine being could be the child of sin. But that same
child caused him fresh cruel torments. Never to see her alone, from day
to day, to be obliged to hide his affection for her, to have to kiss her
coldly like the others, and more coldly than the others, not to be able
to call her the child of his heart, not to hear her lisp the tender name
of father, sometimes saddened him to a point of despair. On one or two
occasions he had been allowed to take her to the Grange. Then he passed
hours in ecstasy, holding her on his knees, and caressing her
passionately.
The child had become accustomed to these violent expressions of
affection and she liked them. Sometimes she felt her fair head wet with
the tears of her friend. Raising her eyes in surprise she would see him
smile, then smiling too, she would reach up her coral lips for a kiss.
"Why are you crying, Luis? Have you a pimple?"
Josefina knew no more serious reason in the world for crying. She loved
Luis dearly, and his general coldness saddened and surprised her. By
degrees she had come to understand with precocious instinct, that the
count loved her more than the others did, but he had to hide his
feelings. So she, following his example, also adopted an indifferent
manner with him when in public. But when they were alone, she
reciprocated his expressions of affection with equal enthusiasm, and
this without knowing why, without accounting to herself for what she
did.
From the day her godmother ordered her hair to be cut, Josefina noticed
that she had fallen into disgrace. She was not now kissed with
transports of delights, her slightest wishes were not acceded to, and
she was no longer the constant source of interest in the house.
Amalia took to scolding her, using a cold, displeased tone towards her,
and the servants followed the example of the senora. The poor child,
without knowing what the change signified, felt her little heart sink,
she explored the faces of those about her with her beautiful deep eyes,
and tried to decipher the enigma that they hid. She became daily more
grave, more retiring, more timid. And as she found she was denied the
toys or the sweetmeats that they used to lavish upon her open-handed,
she left off asking for them.
Amalia, instead of delighting as formerly in her infantile ways,
appeared to avoid them, she gave orders she was not to be brought to her
bed in the morning as usual. When they met on the stairs, she passed by
without looking at her. At the most she would go up to her and say in a
displeased tone:
"You have not washed yourself yet. Go, see you are put right." Or else,
"They tell me you did not know your catechism lesson. You are getting
very idle. Take care and be good, because if not I shall lock you in the
cellar with the rats."
She had formerly busied herself in teaching her, in putting the needle
into her hand, and guiding her little fingers. Now she almost always
left this task to the servants. She lived in a state of gloomy
preoccupation which did not escape the domestics' notice. Josefina also
was conscious that her godmother was changed, not only with regard to
herself, but in her whole manner of life. And so her mind gradually
conceived the idea that she was sad, and that she was suffering, and
that this was the cause of her bad temper. One day the lady was alone in
her room. She had flung herself in an armchair and sat motionless with
her head thrown back and her hands hanging down, apparently asleep.
Nevertheless, Josefina, who passed by the room, and ventured to look
through the crack of the door, noticed that her eyes were open, very
open, and that she was frowning dreadfully. Without knowing what she
did, with the blind confidence that children have in themselves, she
pushed open the door and entered the room. She went silently up to the
senora, and throwing herself suddenly on to her lap, and looking at her
with timid affection, she said:
"Give me a kiss, godmother."
The lady was startled.
"How is it you are here? Who gave you permission to come in? Have I not
told you not to come up without you are called?" she asked, frowning
still more severely.
"I want to give you a kiss," said Josefina in a subdued voice.
"Don't bother me with kisses, and mind you don't come up again without
permission."
But the child, overwhelmed with emotion, not knowing to what to
attribute this moroseness, and wishing to overcome it at all costs,
began to cry, as she threw herself once more upon her lap and tried to
reach her face.
"Give me a kiss, godmother."
"Go! leave me!" replied the lady, preventing her raising herself higher.
The child was obstinate.
"Don't you love me? Give me a kiss."
"Go away, child!" she cried, in a fury. "Go away, at once!"
At the same time she gave her a hard push, and Josefina fell on to the
ground where her head came against the leg of a chair.
She got up, raising her hand to where she was hurt, but she did not cry.
A feeling of dignity, often shown by childish hearts, gave her strength
to keep from crying, although her eyes were filled with tears. She cast
one look of unspeakable sadness on her godmother, and then ran from the
room. When she reached the staircase, she threw herself down on one of
the steps and burst into a fit of sobbing.
The thorns of life were indeed piercing the delicate flesh of that child
whose path until then had been strewn with flowers. Amalia's spite grew
worse every day, and the reserve and timidity of the child increased in
proportion. But as she was only a child, this sadness would vanish when
under the impulse of a fancy, and it was at such moments that the
coldness and spite of the lady were most evident.
"Senora, Josefina does not want to put on her green frock."
"Why?"
"She says it is dirty."
Amalia then rose, repaired to the child's room, took her by the arm, and
shaking her roughly, she said:
"What is this pride? Don't you know, silly, that you are only here out
of pity? Take care and don't vex me, or one day, when least expected, I
will put you in the street where you came from."
The servants heard these words and always bore them in mind. Until now
Josefina had been brought up like a child of the senores, now she was
treated like an illegitimate child, and afterwards like a little pariah.
The servants now took pleasure in paying off the little attentions they
had been formerly obliged to accord her, and the sharp rebukes they had
incurred on her account.
Concha in particular, the dwarfish maid, felt an indescribable delight,
peculiar to her malignant, spiteful character, every time that the
senora evinced in any way her scorn for the adopted child. Josefina had
a large, cheerful room looking on to the garden. Although Concha was
head maid and dressmaker of the house, she had a duller room that she
shared with Maria looking on to the street. Josefina's room had always
been an object of envy to her. More than once she had given strong hints
on the subject; and now, profiting by her mistress's state of mind, she
got permission to sleep in the child's room under the pretext that
Paula, who occupied the next bed, snored so loudly. So she installed
herself comfortably there, and made use of the little girl's toilet
things. A few days later she sent her to sleep with Maria without saying
a word to her mistress. When Amalia did know of it, it had been going on
for some time, and she heard it without any resentment at not having
been told before, and she did nothing to alter what had been done.
Soon after, she thought of another means of degrading the child.
Josefina dined at table with the senores. The pompous old Grandee had
not consented to this at first, but he at last conceded to the
importunities of his wife. Concha, full of spite like her senora, set to
intriguing to deprive the foundling of this privilege. Exaggerating what
it gave to do, the mess that it made, and the disturbance of the waiting
at table, the little girl was finally removed to, and located at, a
little table, which was put in the ironing-room near the kitchen. A few
days after Amalia, in a fit of bad temper, said that the double service
could not be tolerated, and that she was to dine in the kitchen with
the servants. Concha sat her on a stool, pushed her a plate of thick
soup and a tin spoon saying: "Eat."
The child raised her head in amazement, but seeing the malignant smile
in the girl's eyes, she put it down again, and began to eat without any
protest whatever. Concha was not pleased at this, for she wanted to see
her rebel and cry.
"What is it? Don't you like your spoon? Then, child, you'll have to eat
with it as I do, who am quite as good as you. What do you take yourself
for, you little fool? Do you think because you wear a fine hat and a
cambric chemise you are a young lady? Young ladies don't come in a
basket covered over with dirty rags." And so she went on, bursting into
sarcastic, insulting laughter until poor Josefina at last began to cry.
Although the other servants were not so malignant, they were pleased at
the child's humiliation. They ended by taking her part, whilst Concha,
relentless and colder and harder than marble, went on persecuting her
with the greatest cruelty. A few days later, as Josefina was passing
through the ironing-room to the dining-room, she heard Concha say to
Maria:
"I say, girl, have you ironed the foundling's clothes?"
She stopped, not knowing of whom they were speaking, and cast an anxious
look from one servant to the other, until a simultaneous shout of
laughter from them both made her understand that they were speaking of
her.
"Why do you call me a foundling?" cried the innocent child, with
difficulty repressing her tears. "I will go and tell my godmother."
"Go run and tell her," returned Concha pushing her to the door.
And henceforth she went by that name among the servants. Amalia
prohibited her being brought into the drawing-room in the evening. The
count, whose only chance of seeing his child was on these occasions,
asked for an explanation, and the lady replied that as she had to get
up early for her lessons, she required more sleep; but he did not feel
satisfied. He knew that some harm was brewing, but fearing a worse evil
he had the sense to be silent.
Then Amalia thought of a more direct way of wounding the count. The
child whom she had not only deprived of her caresses, but of all her
position in the house, was in a fair way to be an extra little servant.
In one instant the transformation was completed. The senora gave orders
for all her hats and clothes to be put on one side, and for her to be
dressed in the poorest, oldest things out of the press; that she was to
be treated like the rest of the servants, and perform little offices in
the kitchen that were within her power.
The courtship of Fernanda and the count was getting more conspicuous
every day. Although they abstained from talking intimately in the house
of Quinones before the jealous Valencian, she was not oblivious to what
was going on. Her eyes, like two rays of light, seemed to pierce her
lover's brain and read what was there: Luis was in love with his old
betrothed. The adulterous connection weighed on his mind like a heavy
stone. She, the loved and preferred of former days, was now old and
faded beside that splendid rose who had just reached perfection. If he
had not given her up already, it was through his weakness of character,
through the powerful ascendant she had managed to get over him during
the seven years of their _liaison_. But he wanted nothing better than to
break with her. She read it perfectly in his furtive glances, and in the
gloomy abstraction that weighed upon him, in his sudden, unnatural
cheerfulness, in his fear and servility which increased every time he
came near her. One evening the count asked for a glass of water. A
sudden light came into Amalia's eyes--the longed-for moment had arrived.
She pulled the bell, and said in a peculiar tone to the maid who
answered it:
"Paula, send a glass of water."
A few minutes afterwards Josefina came in, poorly clad, with a little
coarse linen apron, and shod with rough shoes. Her little hands had
difficulty in carrying a tray with water, and sugar, and sugar-tongs.
The guests were astounded, and Luis turned pale. The child advanced to
the middle of the room looking timidly at her godmother, who signed to
her to go to the count. The count staggered as if he had had a blow, but
seeing the little creature standing before him, he hastened to take the
glass, and raised it with trembling hand to his lips. Amalia's eyes
meanwhile looked cold and indifferent, but the imperceptible trembling
of her lips betrayed the cruel delight she was feeling. A significant
silence pervaded the gathering whilst this scene was being enacted.
Directly Josefina had left, the Senora de Quinones explained this change
to her guests with perfect naturalness. Some punishment had been found
necessary for the arrogance that the child had taken to showing towards
the servants. It would not be for long. Nevertheless, it was a daily
struggle with the will of Quinones, who objected to her being brought up
with so much indulgence.
"The fact is," she concluded in a tone so natural that it would have
reflected credit on an actress--"the fact is, sometimes I am obliged to
put her in her place in my house. What good is it to raise her to a
position she cannot maintain? Any day we may die, and the poor thing
will have to support herself by work, if she does not find a husband
before then. And what husband would take a girl with many requirements,
and no money?"
The guests were not deceived. She really did not expect that they would
be. All that was a pure sop to conventionality, but nobody was deceived
as to the real facts. The count left soon after, being unable to control
his vexation.
"This business of Luis is not going on very well," said Manuel Antonio
to a little party going home by the Calle de Altavilla consisting of
Maria Josefa, the Pensioner, and his daughter Jovita. "If ever the
marriage of Fernanda does come to anything, it will be at the cost of
much unpleasantness."
"Do you think so?" asked Maria Josefa, to draw him out.
"_Madre!_ Are you mad, woman? Don't you know Amalia as well as I do?"
"And what has Amalia to do with Luis' marriage?" asked Jovita, to whose
maidenhood simplicity seemed befitting in spite of her two-and-thirty
years.
"Ay! It is true there is this little girl here," exclaimed the
Chatterbox with comic, mocking gestures. "I did not think of that!
Nothing, nothing, little monkey; go on in front, these are matters for
grown-up people."
The Pensioner's daughter was pricked to the quick at this remark and
made an insolent retort. Manuel Antonio repaid it with another, and a
regular quarrel was started, in which bitter pointed words were banded
and it lasted as far as the house of the Pensioner, who had made
fruitless efforts to re-establish peace between them. As usual, the
Chatterbox got the best of it, for his remarks combined the vigour of a
male with the subtle spite of a female.
The next day the count had an interview with Amalia in which he
expressed his vexation at the scene of the preceding evening. The lady
was amiable and condescending, and justified her conduct by its being
for the welfare of the child. But Luis noticed that she spoke in a
peculiar manner, and he detected a tone of bitterness and irony in her
words that astonished him. He left her in a preoccupied and uneasy frame
of mind, and for some days he could not shake off the unpleasant
impression of the interview. But his love was rapidly taking possession
of every corner of his soul and finally conquered even that
preoccupation. He was profoundly in love. And as it always happens his
timidity increased in proportion to his love. At first he seemed serene
and courteous in his long conversations with Fernanda, losing no
opportunity of demonstrating his admiration and devotion to his
_ex-fiancee_. But he suddenly lost his _aplomb_, and he shunned all
reference to his own feelings; and he avoided all gallant remarks, but
Fernanda was not deceived. This love had at last come after the lapse of
all that time. Ah! how many tears it had cost her!
Although their conversations were on commonplace subjects, they had a
delicate, exquisite savour. They talked for hours and hours without
being tired, and for the pleasure of being near to, and listening to,
each other. Fernanda chatted in all the joy of her heart without minding
the timidity of her adorer, and with the enjoyment of seeing the puerile
pains he took to avoid his confession of love, knowing that she could
have him at her feet directly she gave the sign. The moment came at
last. One day the beautiful widow determined to declare herself. They
were talking of marriage and second marriages. Luis began to get
excited, and to give his opinion in a trembling voice, trying to change
the conversation. Suddenly Fernanda said with perfect calmness and in a
determined tone:
"I shall not marry a second time."
He turned pale. His face became so sad that the girl, repressing a smile
with difficulty, repeated the remark with still greater decision:
"I shall not be led into a second marriage--unless it be with you."
The count gazed at her in delight.
"Is it really so?" he finally asked, in a trembling voice.
"Yes, it is really so!" she returned, looking at him with a smile.
"Give me your hand, Fernanda."
"Take it, Luis."
They held each other's hands affectionately for some moments. Then the
count rose without saying another word. When he arrived home he wrote
her a long letter of six pages, describing his passion in the most
glowing colours, giving her fervent thanks, and three or four times
calling himself an unworthy fellow. The marriage was arranged to take
place at the end of the year of mourning, of which there were still two
months to run. They decided to keep the matter secret, and not to have
the ceremony in Lancia. A few days before the wedding-day she was to go
to Madrid, where he would join her, and there at the capital they were
to be united for ever.
It is very difficult in little towns to hide anything, and to conceal a
projected marriage is impossible. Every pair of eyes and every pair of
ears seemed magnified to a hundred, so intensely were sight and hearing
concentrated on the couple. By their gait, looks, and manner of
greeting, and leaving each other, the ingenious Lancians guessed by
veritable magic of what the couple was thinking, and they calculated
exactly the progress of the affair that excited such interest in them.
As Manuel Antonio was passing the old-world dwelling of the count, he
saw a maid come out with a cardboard box in her hand. The Chatterbox at
once scented a wedding, so he took breath and followed her.
"How do you do, Laura?" he said, passing her. Then turning quickly, he
said in a careless sort of way:
"How is your master?"
"The senor is not ill."
"Ah! But I was told--well, have not seen him for two days. Are you going
shopping for the senora?"
"They are shirts for the senor conde."
"From Ramiro's? Let me see them, as I have to get some too."
The maid opened the box, and the Chatterbox examined the contents.
"They are very fine; they would be too dear for me."
"Yes, senor, they are dear, and yet the senor does not think they are
good enough. He wants them of silk, at whatever cost, and although I
have been to every shop I can't get them. There is nothing for it but to
order them."
"Of silk? _Madre!_ Then he is going to be married!"
"I don't know about that, senorito," the maid hurriedly replied, with
signs of confusion.
"Get along, little hypocrite!" he returned, laughing; "you know as well
as I do, as well as everybody. And when is it to be?"
"I tell you I know nothing."
But the Chatterbox insisted so much, and was so eloquent and familiar,
that after some time the servant let out what she knew.
"But look here, I cannot tell you anything for certain of what is going
on, but I think he will marry shortly, from some remarks I heard the
other day of the senora countess."
"What remarks?"
"She said to the housekeeper that when her son married she would go for
a time to the Grange, and afterwards, looking through the keyhole, I saw
her crying. Then Fray Diego was in the house the day before
yesterday--but I don't know whether I ought to say."
"Get along, woman; what does it matter. Do you think I am a gossip?"
"Well, I heard him say when he was leaving: 'No, no, they are quite
right, it is much better for them to do it in Madrid. This is a very
spiteful place.'"
The pleasure that Columbus felt at the discovery of the New World was
nothing in comparison to that of our Chatterbox. He not only knew
without any kind of doubt, that they were going to be married, but he
had ascertained where the ceremony was to take place. Overwhelmed with
such splendid news, and wishing to pour it forth to somebody, he
stopped to consider where it would have the most effect. His thoughts
went straight to Amalia; so to the Palace of Quinones he directed his
mincing little steps.
It was the hour of twilight. The senora was sitting in her boudoir,
doubtless absorbed in one of those intense, mournful meditations to
which she had for some time been a prey. Manuel Antonio was jovial and
chatty, and set about cheering her up as much as possible, making the
blood circulate with renewed energy in that ulcerated heart, so that the
shock should be more painful when it came. He asked for chocolate, and
they took it together with pleasant conversation. Amalia seemed to
forget her worries, and when she was just becoming quite cheerful, zas!
the bomb fell. But it fell gently, with that infinite art known only to
men endowed with a feminine mind.
The only thing he regretted was not being able to see her face. The room
was almost dark. But he was quite conscious of the gravity of the
explosion by the sound of her voice and the coldness of her hand as she
bade him good-bye. Amalia remained standing for a long time, rigid and
motionless. She leaned against the heavy curtain to look into the
street, and measured the height of the drop. She tried to open her desk
to get a bottle of essence, but she turned the key too roughly and
hampered the lock. Then she left the room and wandered about the dark
passages and staircase in a vague, uncertain way like a phantom. Then,
far away, she saw a point of light, and involuntarily made her way to it
like a moth.
It was the dining-room, and seated at the table playing with some little
clay shepherdesses, the remains of past possessions, was Josefina. The
shade of the lamp concentrated a bright light upon the little head,
round and yellow as an orange. Amalia stopped an instant and looked at
her with an ardent gaze, devouring that grave melancholy face which bore
such a striking resemblance to Luis. She made a step, and the child
turned her head. The expression of her blue eyes was equally sweet and
sad, and the movement of her eyelashes the same. The wife of the Grandee
covered the distance between them with two steps, and fell upon her like
a hungry tiger. She struck, bit, and tore her, and that open face soon
bore large purple marks from her hands, and blood began to flow. The
child, mad with fear, uttered piercing cries. She had scarcely had time
to see her godmother, and she did not know what had happened. Amalia,
insatiable, went on striking and hurting. The cries of the victim
increased her fury; at last she paused.
"Godmother, what are you doing?" exclaimed the poor child, running into
a corner.
This question, and the look of anguish which accompanied it, infuriated
the lady afresh, and she beat her again unmercifully. The little
creature covered her face with her hands. Then she caught her by the
ears and nearly dragged them off. Not satisfied with that, and angry at
not being able to hurt her face, she took up a feather broom that was on
the table, and hit her sharply on the hands with the handle, leaving
them black and blue. At last the child managed to escape. The servants
who had gathered to witness the scene with astonishment, let her pass
and run down the passages to the staircase. The street door was open.
The coachman on taking the horses to water, had left it so. Josefina
went out of the house, fled down the street of Santa Lucia, passed under
the archway of Santa Barbara, crossed the Archbishop's Square and so to
the gate of San Joaquin, to the Sarrio Road.
Evening had closed in. A fine but very fast rain was falling, which soon
made her wet to the bones. The wretched little creature ran for some
time, and at last stopped from sheer fatigue. The side wall of the road
being low at that part, she sat down, and then began to feel the pain
from the blows. She put her hands to her head, then to her face, from
which she felt a hot liquid pouring that she thought at first was rain.
She soon saw it was blood. Blood! the thing in all the world of which
she had the greatest fear! Still a prey to terror, she did not moan. She
took a fold of her little frock and dried herself, or rather she washed
her face, for the frock was wet; but what she felt most, and what hurt
her in a horrible way, were her hands. Not knowing what to do to
alleviate the pain she began to blow on them. Then she sucked them. But
the pain was so intense that at last she exclaimed, sobbing:
"Oh! my hands!"
At this moment there arose before her, amid the shadows of the night,
two enormous figures that froze her with horror. One of them stooped
down and took her by the arm.
"What are you doing here?" he said, in a rough voice.