JOSEFINA SLEEPS
The noble Grandee easily guessed the author of his disgrace. As soon as
he read the anonymous letter and recovered his self-command, his
suspicions fell upon the Conde de Onis. In this he was only influenced
by the likeness that he now clearly saw between him and the foundling.
For either his excessive pride had blinded his eyes, or else because
Amalia had known how to keep him deceived, he had never noticed anything
between them beyond a cool, conventional friendship at which nobody
could have taken umbrage. The same pride arrested the course of his
bitter thoughts by making the most of this consideration. Why give any
importance to what an anonymous letter said? Why not suppose it was a
vile calumny by which some enemy tried to envenom his existence? But the
dart had gone so deep into his heart that he could not pull it out. All
the considerations invented by his inclination could not destroy the
perfect conviction that, without his knowing how, had taken shape in his
brain. Sundry details, unnoticed at the time, soon stood out and guided
him like lighted torches. The first of all was naturally the illness of
his wife simultaneous with the appearance of the child. He recalled her
strange aversion to having a doctor to see her; then the indulgence and
extreme attention lavished on the child. He also recollected the visits
that at one time his wife made to the Grange on the pretext of getting
plants. There was no circumstance connected with the count's friendship
and the finding of the child that he did not turn over and weigh
thoughtfully. He became silent and meditative. The hard look of his
piercing eyes was always fixed upon Amalia directly she came into the
room. Sometimes he had the child fetched on some pretext or another, and
looked at her for a long time trying to decipher in the lines of her
face the enigma of her existence.
Amalia saw all this, and read the thoughts of her husband like an open
book.
"When is Luis to be married?" asked the Grandee one day in an assumed,
careless tone.
"They say it will be some time yet. He has to arrange I don't know how
many matters before going to Madrid," she replied, with the greatest
calmness.
"Is he still at the Grange?"
"Yes, always; he only comes in sometimes of an evening, according to
what he told me one day when I met him in Barrosa's shop."
The very next evening the count appeared at the party.
"What? You here? Have you left the Grange?" Don Pedro asked, with a
penetrating glance.
"Definitely, no; I have the carriage below. I am going back to sleep."
"You must be dull there, eh?" asked Don Cristobal Mateo.
"In the day, no; I am very busy with agricultural occupations, with the
mill, cattle, &c. But the evenings are very long."
Luis only came for the sake of seeing his daughter. Amalia had not
allowed it until the child had partially recovered; then she was dressed
as before, and she resumed her old rights. But not the affection. The
charm was gone, because Luis hated her, especially through having had to
submit through coercion. With the ardent passion full of love and
mystery there had also mingled an attachment to the little creature.
But the tortures that her mad anger inflicted on the little girl had
made a gulf between them. The poor child, clad in rich clothes, wandered
alone about the palace of the Quinones without inspiring any one with
tenderness. Amalia avoided her. The servants, ashamed of their unkind
treatment, and sulky at the sudden change which put the foundling again
above them, did not speak to her. The long martyrdom she had undergone
and the terrible illness with which it terminated had made great ravages
in her appearance. Her pale cheek was as transparent as mother-of-pearl;
there was still a dark black circle from agitation and pain round her
eyes. The count's heart contracted every time he saw her, and it cost
him some effort to restrain his tears.
Amalia did not tell her lover of the imprudent anonymous letter she had
sent to Quinones. Fearing from her husband's excitability some serious
consequence would ensue, she determined to get him off the scent, as it
was not possible to restore his tranquillity. The course that seemed to
her best to take was to remove his suspicions from Luis and put them on
Jaime Moro. He was the only one who, by his position, age, and
appearance could seem like a probable lover. She began by treating him
before Don Pedro with particular partiality, picking him out from the
other guests in a very conspicuous manner. She cast smiling, significant
glances at him; she took pleasure in standing behind his chair when he
was playing at _tresillo_ and joking with him; she called him every
minute to her on some pretext or other, and then kept him at her side
with long whispering conversations in which her cheek came in close
proximity with his. It was not so easy as it seemed to make a conquest
of Moro, although it was only a make-believe. He was not at all
churlish; on the contrary, he had a just reputation of being gentlemanly
and courteous with ladies; but when ladies stand in the way of billiards
or _tresillo_ there is nobody six miles round so cross and uncivil.
Amalia was a great bore to him when the _tresillo_ players were waiting
for him. Then his answers to her questions did not come readily; he
smiled mechanically and gave frequent longing glances at the table where
his companions were enjoying the delights of some trick with a good
suit.
"Moro, sit here, we will have a chat together."
Moro trembled as if the world were coming to an end. He took a seat by
the side of the lady with a face that was very long, not at all
consistent with the passion that was supposed to consume his breast. The
Grandee had paid little heed to these marks of favour and insinuating
smiles of his wife. He looked at them with vacant eyes without any
suspicion arising in his mind, which was entirely turned in the right
direction. Nevertheless, Amalia was so persistent and seemed so
engrossed, that the noble gentleman began to pay heed to those signs and
to attribute some significance to them. The Valencian felt the pleasure
of triumph. Her machinations were about to be realised. And to give an
important, decisive stroke to her plot, she suddenly thought of a
dangerous trick. She was seated in a corner with Jaime Moro at her side,
quite in sight of Don Pedro. Moro was _distrait_ as usual, and the wife
of Quinones had to make prodigious efforts to sustain the conversation;
she smiled, she coquetted, she involved him in a mesh of honeyed
phrases, which she greatly intensified with her smile so as to attract
Don Pedro's attention.
"What is it? Are you looking at my bracelet?"
Moro had not noticed it.
"It is very pretty," he quickly returned politely.
"It belonged to my mother. It is better than it looks. This portrait,
which is of my grandmother, is made in mosaic. Look!"
Whereupon she raised her hand, and Moro looked at it with assumed
admiration.
"Look well at it."
And she raised it a little more so as to bring it near his face. Then
seeing out of the corner of her eye that Don Pedro was looking at her,
she lifted it a little more so as to brush the lips of the young man;
then she instantly withdrew it with a quick gesture. Moro was quite
taken aback. He involuntarily looked at Don Pedro, and seeing that his
glance was fixed on him with a cold piercing look, he coloured up to the
eyes; and Amalia rose and left the room as if to hide her confusion.
The proud Grandee was fully overwhelmed by the secret that he thought he
had discovered. His ideas underwent a sudden shock. Agitated by a
thousand conflicting suspicions, dominated by furious anger, he moved
the cards in his trembling hands without thinking of them, for his mind
was full of awful revenge against his wife and against him. Against
whom? Who was the traitor? Doubt inflamed his rage. What he had seen was
very conclusive. Nevertheless, he could not get the Conde de Onis out of
his mind. The testimony of his eyes was arrayed against his instinct, a
voice within that told him continually the name of his enemy.
The count himself then appeared at the party. He greeted Amalia coldly,
and was going straight to the library, when Manuel Antonio caught hold
of him by the tail of his coat.
"Where are you off to, Luis? Come here, boy; don't go and bury yourself
in the game directly. Look here, Maria Josefa and Jovita have been
disputing every evening about the date of your marriage. But I said to
them: 'Don't dispute any more. If Luis comes to-day he is so kind that
he will certainly tell you himself.'"
"Then you told them wrong," replied the count, approaching the group.
"Have you turned so cross then?"
"It is not crossness, it is ignorance. These ladies know very well that
things don't happen as, and when, we wish. If I were to name a date now,
and it turned out differently they would think that I had been making
fun of them."
In spite of the efforts he made to smile, the face of the count
expressed infinite sadness, and his voice was low and hoarse.
"No, no! nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Jovita, laughing. "Tell us any
day, and if it should turn out differently we shall think it was not by
your wish."
"Very well, then, to-morrow."
"So soon as that!" cried both old maids in astonishment.
"You are not easy to please. What day do you want me to marry? Fix it
yourselves."
The count had not said a word to anybody about his marriage being broken
off. The innate weakness of his character made him withhold a piece of
news that would so soon spread abroad. He fought shy of public curiosity
and avoided questions at which his face might betray the cause of such a
determination. And he trembled and became profoundly sad every time,
like now, the matter was alluded to. Until then nothing had transpired.
It was thought in the town from day to day that he would go to Madrid to
join his bride. Nevertheless, Manuel Antonio, whose olfactory sense was
superior to that of all his contemporaries, had scented something. And
with the tenacity and dissimulation of an Isabella of England, he began
to collect bits of news and piece them together in such a way that at
the present time he was very near the truth.
"You seem very sad, Luisito," he said to him suddenly. "You look more
like making your will than being married."
The count was affected, and not knowing what to say, he answered, with a
forced smile:
"Marriage is a very serious step."
He then tried to beat a retreat, but Manuel Antonio retained him again.
He wanted to get a key to the enigma at all costs, and to have his
suspicions confirmed, so seconded by Maria Josefa, who knew better than
he what line to adopt, he kept up the conversation for some time on the
difficult subject. Luis was on thorns. He kept looking at Amalia, as if
he were claiming what she had been obliged to concede him. The lady at
last rose, put her head out of the door, and then resumed her seat. In a
few moments Josefina's pale, gentle face appeared. She cast her sad eyes
over the room, and at a sign from her godmother she directed her steps
to the library. She passed the count, he half turned towards her and
gave her a rapid, anxious look, which did not escape the sharp eyes of
his interlocutors. The child raised her eyes shining with a happy smile
to his. It was a magnetic shock that suddenly filled her childish heart
with joy. The guests tried to keep her, but obedient to the command of
her godmother she went on to the library. A few minutes afterwards,
Quinones sharp voice was heard:
"Is not the Conde de Onis there? Why does he not come in?"
"I am coming, Don Pedro," returned Luis, quickly, glad to escape from
the boring group.
On his entering the library, in less time than it takes to tell, a
terrible scene took place that put everything in commotion, and
terrified the guests. Don Pedro, with the cards in his hand, was with
Jaime Moro and Don Enrique Valero. Saleta, who made the fourth, was
sitting talking to the chaplain behind him. Three or four people were
standing round the table watching the game. Josefina was near the noble
Grandee with her arms crossed, waiting for the benediction before going
to bed. At the count's entrance, Quinones darted a rapid, sharp glance
at him, and then gave one of deep hatred at the child, as he said, with
a sarcastic smile:
"Ah, do you want your blessing? Take your blessing."
And so saying he gave her a tremendous blow that felled her to the
ground, whilst blood flowed from her mouth and nostrils.
Luis seemed to feel the blow in his own cheeks. All the blood left them
and he turned deadly pale; then his will being overpowered by a blind
impulse, he cried out:
"It is a vile shame! It is a cowardly act!"
He then tried to throw himself on Quinones, but the others held him
back, whilst Don Pedro called out in a loud voice, mad with anger, "At
last! At last, dog!"
He made a supreme effort to rise from his chair and attack the destroyer
of his honour. He half managed it, but finally fell back senseless with
his mouth distorted. The guests had all risen and rushed to the library.
The ladies shrieked in terror. The men behind asked what had happened.
The Conde de Onis cast a frenzied look at them, stepped to the spot
where Josefina was lying, lifted her from the ground, and with her in
his arms, he tried to pass out, but Amalia stood in the way.
"Where are you going?"
Then she tried to snatch the child from him. But Luis stretched out his
hand, caught the Valencian by the hair, and after shaking her roughly
three or four times, he cast her away from him, and made for the
drawing-room door. He flew down the staircase and out into the street,
where his carriage was waiting for him, and jumping into it with his
precious burthen, he said to the coachman:
"Quick, to the Grange!"
The heavy vehicle jolted along the badly paved streets, and he was not
long in reaching the high road. The moon shone high in the firmament.
Great thick clouds floated across its disc, but it reappeared directly.
A stormy wind soughed in the upper atmospheric regions. Silence and
peace reigned below.
Josefina still remained unconscious. The count wiped the blood away
with his handkerchief. Then he tried to revive her by imprinting long,
passionate kisses upon her alabaster cheek.
At last her eyes opened, she looked at the count with a strange
intensity and then they lighted up with a sweet smile:
"Is that you, Luis?"
"Yes, my life, it is I."
"Where are you taking me to?"
"Where you like."
"Take me far away, very far away! Take me to your house. Take me, even
if you can't feed me. Being with you I shan't mind dying."
The count pressed her to his heart and covered her with kisses.
"Yes, yes, you are going to my house," he exclaimed, whilst tears bathed
his cheeks. "You shall never leave it, because they would have to take
my life before they should take you. Listen, Josefina, I am going to
tell you something. Try and understand. Make an effort and you will do
so. I am your father. The Senores de Quinones took you into their house;
but I am your father. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Luis, I understand you."
"They took you in because I was wrong enough to give you up to them
instead of keeping you with me."
"Now I understand you, Luis. You were not wrong. You were good, and I
love you."
"Yes, child of my soul, I love you more than my life. Forgive me."
"I love you too--but not them. I loved godmother once, but not now. She
has beaten me so much. If you could but know! She bit me, she scratched
me, she dragged me on the ground, she told Concha to beat me with a
broom, she tied me with a string like a dog."
"Don't, don't, you kill me!" said Luis, sobbing.
"Don't cry, Luis, don't cry! See how kind you are; you are crying for
me."
"Should I not cry for you as you are my daughter? I am your father!
Don't you know it, don't you know it?"
"Yes, I know it. You are my father, and I am your daughter. I am
sleepy--let me sleep upon your breast."
And her little fair head sank in sleep. The count bent his own to
imprint a kiss upon her brow, and his lips encountered the fire of
fever.
The little creature enjoyed a few minutes lethargic sleep. Occasional
cold shivers ran through her delicate little body. At last she awoke
with a cry.
"Luis, they are taking me away! Look at them, look at them! There they
are!" Her eyes were full of wild terror.
"No, daughter, no, they are trees on the road waving their branches
towards us."
"Don't you see Don Pedro threatening me? Don't you hear what he is
saying?"
"Calm yourself, my soul, it is the roaring of the wind."
"You are right. They are gone now. Look how the moon is shining! Look at
the beautiful fields and the quantities of flowers! A palace of crystal!
There is a child playing with a white cat. How lovely! It is prettier
than Rose. Let me play with her, Luis."
"You shall play as much as you like, and I will buy you a white cat and
a white dove that will eat out of your hand."
"No, I don't want you to spend money; I am contented if you don't leave
me."
"Never, you shall live with me always, because you are my daughter. Go
to sleep, my heart."
"Darkness again! It has come back. Take them away, Luis, take them! for
God's sake! How they are pulling at me!"
"Don't be afraid, you are with me. Look, there is the moon again. Do you
see how it shines? Sleep, my heart."
"It is true--Yes I see the fields full of flowers--I see the white
cat--The child is not there--Where is it, Luis?"
"It is in my house waiting to play with you. We are very near now. Go to
sleep."
"Yes, Luis, I am going to sleep. You tell me to, don't you? I ought to
obey you because I am your daughter. I am cold. Hold me tighter."
He pressed her closer and closer to his breast. Josefina slept at last.
The carriage rolled along the deserted road, past the fields lighted by
the light of the moon. The wind moaned in the distance. The trees began
to wave their branches.
The drive to the Grange was reached.
Luis bent his head to wake the child, but on giving her a kiss, he felt
the coldness of death. He raised her quickly, he shook her violently
several times as he called her loudly:
"Josefina! Daughter! daughter! daughter! Wake up!"
The fair head of the child fell from one side to the other like a lily
with a broken stem.
_Printed by_ BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
_London & Edinburgh_
FOOTNOTES:
[A] A peseta is worth 9-1/2_d._
[B] Spanish game of cards.
[C] One of the Spanish military orders formed to wage war against
infidels.
[D] Spanish games of cards.
[E] About L700 or L800.
[F] Spanish game of billiards.
[G] The officer who collects the king's revenue.
[H] About L300.
[I] About L400.
[J] _Lapiz_, a black stone. He meant to say _apice_, the smallest part.
[K] An old-fashioned dance still in vogue in Galicia and Asturias. One
chants a song, and the others join in the chorus.
[Illustration: book back cover]