The situation was becoming intolerable. Something must be done and done
at once to clear the atmosphere. Captain Forest's apparent indifference
to all things, including herself, aroused Blanch to a pitch of
exasperation which might best be likened to that of a high-strung,
thoroughbred horse that has been ignominiously hitched to a plow and
compelled to drag it. At the end of a week he either drops dead in the
furrow or becomes a broken-spirited hack for the rest of his days.
Nothing short of love or hatred could satisfy her. It was a new
experience. Never had she suffered such ignominy. It was like being
coerced. One could respect an enemy, but this exasperating indifference
was unendurable. The more she thought of it, the more convinced she
became, that it was just such an antagonistic attitude which had
prompted the beautiful, though wicked Borgia, to administer certain love
potions to numerous unappreciative gallants. Deliberate, cold-blooded
murder committed under such extenuating circumstances began to appear
more in the light of justice than of crime.
Captain Forest offered an entirely new front. Not that he had changed so
much, she knew better than that, but she marveled at his self-control.
The dash and spirit of the soldier, which every one admired so much in
him, had given way to the most insulting, good-humored complacency; the
frame of mind one looks for in an aged sinner whose terror of an
uncertain future has driven him to prepare for heaven. She knew well
enough that his attitude was assumed for a purpose only, until he had
made up his mind what to do; waiting to make up his mind as to which of
them, she or Chiquita, was preferable. This, of course, was merely a
jealous supposition on her part.
She had hoped to arouse his jealousy, or, failing in that, at least his
enthusiasm. Thus far she had failed to accomplish either and she could
not understand it. Surely he was flesh and blood like other men, yet
nothing seemed to move him. He appeared like one at peace with all the
world, calm and serene as a summer's day, and smoked incessantly. She
could endure it no longer. The depression from which she suffered was
crushing her slowly and irresistibly to earth. She was at her wits' end
to know what to do to relieve the tension, until she finally hit upon
the idea of giving an old-fashioned Spanish _fandango_--a _fiesta_.
The thought was a happy one. It was not only one of those things she had
always wanted to see, but it would be a break--something to relieve the
strain of her daily existence; she pursuing, he avoiding her. The
novelty of the scene--the bright, gay costumes of the Mexicans, music
and twinkling lights, dancing and wine and laughter and song, and the
stars overhead, mellowed by the light of the full moon, must infuse new
life into them all--recall memories of other days to him. With such a
setting, a woman of her beauty, refinement and attraction, and an adept
at the game of flattery and intrigue, must shine with new luster--become
doubly dangerous and irresistible to a man. Though this was her chief
motive for giving the _fiesta_, she had still another in view.
The fame of Chiquita's dancing had naturally aroused her curiosity. She
would ask her to dance; not that she believed the half of what she heard
concerning it, but it would be a satisfaction to see it. Besides, she
had a certain motive of her own for so doing which she imparted to no
one; the subtlest of a woman's thoughts which only the intuition of a
woman could have prompted. She laughed to herself at the thought which
invariably aroused within her a feeling akin to triumph. Why had she not
thought of it before? She knew the Captain had already seen her dance,
but then that was before he knew who she was. It had been in a theater,
and his enthusiasm must have been prompted in a measure by that of the
audience about him. The emotion of a large assembly was always
contagious--sweeping the individual along with it. Whereas, in private,
her dancing, lacking the glamour and artificiality of the stage, would
be a very different thing. It would appear in a more realistic,
commonplace light. Any faults which the atmosphere of the stage might
have concealed would immediately become apparent in the light of natural
surroundings and her performance sink to the level of the commonplace.
Her dancing could only be amateurish at its best, for where could she
possibly have learned to dance? What instruction could she, living in
this out-of-the-way corner of the world, have received in the art? As
for local enthusiasm, it counted for little--amateurs were always so
popular at home. And after all was said, what did the achievements of
the great dancers really amount to? Their creations were not ranked with
those of other artistic achievements. In fact, dancing could scarcely be
ranked with the legitimate branches of art at all. At its best, it was
only a pastime; something to amuse. This, of course, was the light in
which she viewed one of the greatest arts which few ever succeed in
mastering. Possibly because the world has really seen no dancing to
speak of since the days of the great Taglioni, until the Pavlowa
appeared. Even parts of the latter's art were questionable, but then,
she was the Pavlowa!
Chiquita's dancing differed from anything Captain Forest had ever seen.
As a matter of fact, much of it would not have been called dancing at
all by many people, so different has the modern conception of the art
become since the days of the ancients. But where had she received her
instruction? The ability to dance, like any other talent, is born in
one, not acquired. True, it must be developed through constant practice
just like any other talent, if ever it is to amount to anything; but
even then, great dancers are born just as great painters, poets and
musicians are born.
The Indian's greatest pastime and amusement is dancing, and Chiquita had
danced almost daily from earliest childhood to her sixteenth year when
fate had led her to Padre Antonio's door. Then she went to the City of
Mexico and also had visited Europe. In both places she had had the
opportunity of seeing some of the greatest dancers of the day and was
able to draw comparisons between their conceptions of the art and hers.
But when she began the study of ancient history her attention was called
to the Greeks' conception of the art, and she soon discovered that
modern dancing was a direct violation of that which was most plastic in
art, and consisted chiefly of contortions, high kicking and pirouetting
on the toes. She also discovered that the conceptions of her own people
regarding the art stood nearer that of the ancients than did modern
man's. To her it was an interesting discovery. It was as natural for her
to dance as to breathe, and from that hour she began to study and
practice the art with renewed interest.
Shortly after her admittance to the convent, it was also discovered that
she possessed a voice of unusual quality and range; and, as Padre
Antonio had instructed the Sisters to do their utmost to develop any
natural talent she might possess to a marked degree, the best teacher in
voice culture which the city afforded was procured for her. These were
Padre Antonio's wishes and they had been obeyed conscientiously by the
Sisters who recognized Chiquita's strong dramatic ability.
The years passed, and, as the day finally arrived on which she was to
leave school, the performances which marked the closing exercises were
given as usual by the pupils. The last number on the programme
represented an ancient Greek festival arranged by Padre Alesandro, the
instructor in classic literature, in which Chiquita took the leading
part, and in which, at her request, she was permitted to introduce a
dance of her own creation. Among the many guests that had been invited
to attend the closing ceremonies was one Signor Tosti, a ballet-master,
who at the time was visiting the Capitol with an Italian opera company.
A friend whose daughter took part in the exercises had persuaded him,
much against his will, to attend; for what possible interest could a
veteran of the ballet take in such amateurish exhibitions?
Touring the world with a troup of quarrelsome artists was arduous work
for a tired old gentleman at its best. So, like the sensible man that he
was, he promptly went to sleep at the opening of the performance and
probably would have slept through the entire evening, had he not been
aroused from his slumbers in the midst of the last number on the
programme by the sound of a glorious voice--a deep mezzo-soprano of the
richest contralto quality. Opening his eyes, he saw an assembly of
beautifully clad, flower-bedecked Grecian youths and maidens drawn up
across the back of the stage, chanting the chorus, and in their midst,
in the foreground, one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He
drew himself up with a start and rubbed his eyes to assure himself that
he was really awake. And then, considering the occasion and the time and
the place, he witnessed a performance that fairly took his breath away.
His Southern temperament became thoroughly aroused, and at the
conclusion of the dance, he suddenly rose from his seat and without
waiting for an introduction, rushed to the stage and springing upon it,
bowed low before Chiquita and seizing her hand, kissed it in view of the
audience. No one knew better than he did that, in his profession, a new
star had just fallen from heaven to earth. The following day he and the
director of his company waited upon Chiquita and offered her any sum she
might choose to name if she would consent to join the company and return
to Europe with them. But they did not know what Chiquita's past had
been--that she was still the Amazon as of old--that the woman who had
been trained to battle in her early youth the same as the men of her
people had been trained, regarded as mere pastime that which they
considered one of the heights of earthly attainment. The woman who at
sunrise had listened daily to the song of the Memnon, who had
experienced the shock of battle, whose life lived close to nature had
taught her the meaning of the ethics of the dust and instilled into her
veins the rippling laughter of water and sunshine and the song of the
winds, and whose every breath had been the rapturous breath of freedom,
viewed life from a different standpoint than that of men debased by
centuries of servitude. The world of their creation was trifling in
comparison to that of God's which to her was all sufficing and enabled
her to look upon their doings with the same equanimity and indulgence as
that with which the parent regards the frolicsome gambols of the child.
Twenty years of almost uninterrupted practice had kept her body and
limbs supple and pliant, but this Blanch did not know.