IV

Doña Bernarda did not suspect the reason why her son rose on the

following morning pale, and with dark rings under his eyes, as if he had

spent a bad night. Nor could his political friends guess, that

afternoon, why in such fine weather, Rafael should come and shut himself

up in the stifling atmosphere of the Club.

When he came in, a crowd of noisy henchmen gathered round him to discuss

all over again the great news that had been keeping "the Party" in

feverish excitement for a week past: the Cortes were to be dissolved!

The newspapers had been talking of nothing else. Within two or three

months, before the close of the year at the latest, there would be a new

election, and therewith, as all averred, a landslide for don Rafael

Brull. The intimate friend and lieutenant of the House of Brull was the

best informed. If the elections took place on the date indicated by the

newspapers, Rafael would still be five or six months short of his

twenty-fifth birth-day. But don Andrés had written to Madrid to consult

the Party leaders. The prime minister was agreeable--"there were

precedents!"--and even though Rafael should be a few weeks short of the

legal age, the seat would go to him just the same. They would send no

more "foundlings" from Madrid! Alcira would have no more "unknowns"

foisted upon her! And the whole Tribe of Brull dependents was preparing

for the contest with the enthusiasm of a prize-fighter sure of victory

beforehand.

All this bustling expectation left Rafael cold. For years he had been

looking forward to that election time, when the chance would come for

his free life in Madrid. Now that it was at hand he was completely

indifferent to the whole matter, as if he were the last person in the

world concerned.

He looked impatiently at the table where don Andrés, with three other

leading citizens, was having his daily hand at cards before coming to

sit down at Rafael's side. That was a canny habit of don Andrés. He

liked to be seen in his capacity of Regent, sheltering the heir-apparent

under the wing of his prestige and experienced wisdom.

Well along in the afternoon, when the Club parlor was less crowded with

members, the atmosphere freer of smoke, and the ivory balls less noisy

on the green cloth, don Andrés considered his game at an end, and took a

chair in his disciple's circle, where as usual Rafael was sitting with

the most parasitic and adulatory of his partisans.

The boy pretended to be listening to their conversation, but all the

while he was preparing mentally a question he had decided to put to don

Andrés the day before.

At last he made up his mind.

"You know everybody, don Andrés. Well, yesterday, up on San Salvador, I

met a fine-looking woman who seems to be a foreigner. She says she's

living here. Who is she?"

The old man burst into a loud laugh, and pushed his chair back from the

table, so that his big paunch would have room to shake in.

"So you've seen her, too!" he exclaimed between one guffaw and another.

"Well, sir, what a city this is! That woman got in the day before

yesterday, and everybody's seen her already. She's the talk of the town.

You were the only one who hadn't asked me about her so far. And now

you've bitten!... Ho! Ho! Ho! What a place this is!"

When he had had his laugh out--Rafael, meanwhile, did not see the

joke--he continued in more measured style:

"That 'foreign woman,' as you call her, boy, comes from Alcira. In fact,

she was born about two doors from you. Don't you know doña Pepa, 'the

doctor's woman,' they call her--a little lady who has an orchard close

by the river and lives in the Blue House, that's always under water when

the Júcar floods? She once owned the place you have just beyond where

you live, and she's the one who sold it to your father--the only

property don Ramón ever bought, so far as I know. Don't you remember?"

Rafael thought he did. As he went back in his memory, the picture of an

old wrinkled woman rose before his mind, a woman round-shouldered, bent

with age, but with a kindly face smiling with simple-mindedness and good

nature. He could see her now, with a rosary usually in her hand, a

camp-stool under her arm, and her _mantilla_ drawn down over her face.

As she passed the Brull door on her way to church, she would greet his

mother; and doña Bernarda would remark in a patronizing way: "Doña Pepa

is a very fine woman; one of God's own souls.... The only decent person

in her family."

"Yes; I remember; I remember doña Pepa," said Rafael.

"Well, your 'foreigner,'" don Andrés continued, "is doña Pepa's niece,

daughter of her brother, the doctor. The girl has been all over the

world singing grand opera. You were probably too young to remember

Doctor Moreno, who was the scandal of the province in those days...."

But Rafael certainly did remember Doctor Moreno! That name was one of

the freshest of his childhood recollections, the bugaboo of many nights

of terror and alarm, when he would hide his trembling head under the

clothes. If he cried about going to bed so early, his mother would say

to him in a mysterious voice:

"If you don't keep quiet and go right to sleep I'll send for Doctor

Moreno!"

A weird, a formidable personage, the Doctor! Rafael could see him as

clearly as if he were sitting there in front of him; with that huge,

black, curly beard; those large, burning eyes that always shone with an

inner fire; and that tall, angular figure that seemed taller than ever

as young Brull evoked it from the hazes of his early years. Perhaps the

Doctor had been a good fellow, who knows! At any rate Rafael thought so,

as his mind now reverted to that distant period of his life; but he

could still remember the fright he had felt as a child, when once in a

narrow street he met the terrible Doctor, who had looked at him through

those glowing pupils and caressed his cheeks gently and kindly with a

hand that seemed to the youngster as hot as a live coal! He had fled in

terror, as almost all good boys did when the Doctor petted them.

What a horrible reputation Doctor Moreno had! The curates of the town

spoke of him in terms of hair-raising horror. An infidel! A man cut off

from Mother Church! Nobody knew for certain just what high authority had

excommunicated him, but he was, no doubt, outside the pale of decent,

Christian folks. Proof of that there was, a-plenty. His whole attic was

filled with mysterious books in foreign languages, all containing

horrible doctrines against God and the authority of His representatives

on earth. He defended a certain fellow by the name of Darwin, who

claimed than men were related to monkeys, a view that gave much

amusement to the indignant doña Bernarda, who repeated all the jokes on

the crazy notion her favorite preacher cracked of a Sunday in the

pulpit. And such a sorcerer! Hardly a disease could resist Doctor

Moreno. He worked wonders in the suburbs, among the lower scum; and

those laborers adored him with as much fear as affection. He succeeded

with people who had been given up by the older doctors, wiseacres in

long frocks and with gold-headed canes, who trusted more in God than in

science, as Rafael's mother would say in praise of them. That devil of a

physician used new and unheard-of treatments he learned from atheistic

reviews and suspicious books he imported from abroad. His competitors

grumbled also because the Doctor had a mania for treating poor folk

gratis, actually leaving money, sometimes, into the bargain; and he

often refused to attend wealthy people of "sound principles" who had

been obliged to get their confessor's permission before placing

themselves in his hands.

"Rascal!... Heretic!... Lower scum!..." doña Bernarda would exclaim.

But she said such things in a very low voice and with a certain fear,

for those days were bad ones for the House of Brull. Rafael remembered

how gloomy his father had been about that time, hardly even leaving the

_patio_. Had it not been for the respect his hairy claws and his

frowning eye-brows inspired, the rabble would have eaten him alive.

"Others" were in command, ... "others" ... everybody, in fact, except

the House of Brull.

The monarchy had been treasonably overturned; the men of the Revolution

of September were legislating in Madrid. The petty tradesmen of the

city, ever rebellious against the tyranny of don Ramón, had taken guns

in their hands and formed a little militia, ready to send a fusilade

into the _cacique_ who had formerly trodden them under foot. In the

streets people were singing the _Marseillaise_, waving tricolored

bunting, and hurrahing for the Republic. Candles were being burned

before pictures of Castelar. And meantime that fanatical Doctor, a

Republican, was preaching on the public squares, explaining the "rights

of man" at daytime meetings in the country and at night meetings in

town. Wild with enthusiasm he repeated, in different words, the orations

of the portentous Tribune who in those days was traveling from one end

of Spain to the other, administering to the people the sacrament of

democracy to the music of his eloquence, which raised all the grandeurs

of History from the tomb.

Rafael's mother, shutting all the doors and windows, would lift her

angry eyes toward heaven every time the crowd, returning from a meeting,

would pass through her street with banners flying and halt two doors

away, in front of the Doctor's house, where they would cheer, and cheer.

"How long, oh Lord, how long?" And though nobody insulted her nor asked

her for so much as a pin, she talked of moving to some other country.

Those people demanded a Republic--they belonged, as she said, to the

"Dividing-up" gang. The way things were going, they'd soon be winning;

and then they would plunder the house, and perhaps cut her throat and

strangle the baby!

"Never mind them, never mind them!" the fallen _cacique_ would reply,

with a condescending smile. "They aren't so bad as you imagine. They'll

sing their _Marseillaise_ for a time and shout themselves hoarse. Why

shouldn't they, if they're content with so little? Other days are

coming. The Carlists will see to it that our cause triumphs."

In don Ramón's judgment, the Doctor was a good sort, though his head may

have been a bit turned by books. He knew him very well: they had been

schoolmates together, and Rafael's father had never cared to join the

hue and cry against Doctor Moreno. The one thing that seemed to bother

him was that, as soon as the Republic was proclaimed, the Doctor's

friends were eager to send him as a deputy to the Constituent Assembly

of '73. That lunatic a deputy! Whereas he, the friend and agent of so

many Conservative ministries, had never dared think of the office for

himself, because of the fairly superstitious awe in which he held it!

The end of the world was surely coming!

But the Doctor had refused the nomination. If he were to go to Madrid,

what would become of the poor people who depended on him for health and

protection? Besides, he liked a quiet, sedentary life, with his books

and his studies, where he could satisfy his desires without quarrels and

fighting. His deep convictions impelled him to mingle with the masses,

and speak in public places--where he proved to be a successful agitator,

but he refused to join party organizations; and after a lecture or an

oration, he would spend days and days with his books and magazines,

alone save for his sister--a docile, pious woman who worshipped him,

though she bewailed his irreligion--and for his little daughter, a

blonde girl whom Rafael could scarcely remember, because her father's

unpopularity with the "best people" kept the little child away from

"good society."

The Doctor had one passion--music; and everybody admired his talent for

that art. What didn't the man know, anyhow? According to doña Bernarda

and her friends, that remarkable skill had been acquired through "evil

arts." It was another fruit of his impiety! But that did not prevent

crowds from thronging the streets at night, cautioning pedestrians to

walk more softly as they approached his house; nor from opening their

windows to hear better when that devil of a doctor would be playing his

violoncello. This he did when certain friends of his came up from

Valencia to spend a few days with him--a queer, long-haired crew that

talked a strange language and referred to a fellow called Beethoven

with as much respect as if he were San Bernardo himself.

"Yes, don Andrés," said Rafael. "I remember Doctor Moreno very well."

And his ears seemed to tingle again with the diabolical melodies that

had floated in to the side of his little bed on terrible nights still

fresh in his memory.

"Very well," continued the old man. "That lady is the Doctor's daughter.

What a man he was! How he made your father and me fume in the days of

'73! Now that all that is so far in the past, I'll say he was a fine

fellow. His brain had gone somewhat bad from reading too much, like don

Quixote; and he was crazy over music. Most charming manners he had,

however. He married a beautiful orchard-girl, who happened to be very

poor. He said the marriage was ... for the purpose of perpetuating the

species--those were his very words--of having strong, sound, healthy

children. For that he didn't need to bother about his wife's social

position. What he was looking for was health. So he picked out that

Teresa of his, as strong as an ox, and as fresh as an apple. But little

good it did the poor woman. She had one baby and died a few days

afterward, despite the science and the desperate efforts of her husband.

They had lived together less than a year."

Rafael's companions were listening with as much attention as he; for

morbid curiosity is the characteristic of the people of small places,

where the keenest pleasure available is that of knowing the private

affairs of others intimately.

"And now comes the good part," don Andrés continued. "The mad Doctor

had two saints: Castelar and Beethoven. The pictures of those fellows

were scattered in every room of the house, even in the attic. This

Beethoven (in case you don't know it), was an Italian or an Englishman,

I'm not sure which--one of those fellows who makes music up out of his

head for people to play in theatres or for lunatics like Moreno to amuse

themselves with. Well, when his daughter was born the Doctor wondered

what name to give her. As a tribute to Emilio Castelar, his idol, he

felt he ought to call her Emilia: but he liked the sound of Leonora

better (no, not Lenor, but Leonora!). According to what he told us, that

was the title of the only opera Beethoven ever wrote--an opera he could

read, for that matter, the way I read the paper. Anyhow, the foreigner

won out; and the Doctor packed the child off to church with his sister,

who took a few neighbors of the poorer sort along to see Leonora

baptized.

"You can imagine what the priest said after he had looked in vain

through the catalogue of saints for that name. At the time I was

employed in the municipal offices, and I had to intervene. This was all

before the Revolution; Gonzalez Brabo was boss in those days--and good

old days they were! Let an enemy of law and order or sound religion just

raise his voice and he was off on his way to Fernando Pio in no time.

Well, what a racket the Doctor raised! He sat himself down in that

church--first time he'd ever been in the place--and insisted that his

daughter be labeled as he directed. Later he thought he would take her

home without any baptism at all, saying he had no use for the ceremony

anyhow, and that he put up with it only to please his sister. During

the argument, he called all the curates and acolytes assembled in the

sacristy there, a pack of 'brahmans.'"

"He must have said Brahmins," interrupted Rafael.

"Yes, that's it: and Bonzes, too--just joking, of course--I remember

very well. But finally he compromised and let her be baptized with the

orthodox name of 'Leonor.' Not that he cared what they called her in the

church. As he went out he said to the priest: "She will be 'Leonora' for

reasons that please her father, and which you wouldn't understand even

if I were to explain them to you." What a hubbub followed! Don Ramón and

I had to interfere to calm the good curates; they were for sending him

up for sacrilege, insult to religion, what not! We had to go some to

quiet things down. In those days, boy, a matter of that sort was more

serious than killing a man."

"Which name did she keep?" asked a friend of Rafael.

"Leonora, as her father wished. That girl always took after the old man.

Just as queer as he was. The Doctor all over again! I haven't seen her

yet. They say she's a stunning beauty, like her mother, who was a

blonde, and the handsomest girl in all these parts. When the Doctor had

dressed his wife up like a lady, she wasn't much for manners, but she

certainly was something to look at...."

"And what became of Moreno?" asked another. "Is it true, as they said

years ago, that he shot himself?"

"Oh, some say one thing, some another. Perhaps it's all a lie. Who

knows! It all happened so far away.... After the Republic fell, it was

the turn of decent people again. Poor Moreno took it all harder than he

did the death of his Teresa, and kept himself locked up in his house day

in, day out. Your father was stronger than before and we ran things in a

way that was a sight for sore eyes! Don Antonio up in Madrid gave orders

to the Governors to give us a free hand in cleaning up everything that

was left of the Revolution. The people who before had been cheering for

the Doctor all the time, now kept away from him for fear we should catch

them. Some afternoons he would go for a walk in the suburbs, or a stroll

over to his sister's orchard, near the river--always with Leonora at his

side. She was now about eleven years old. All his affection was centered

on her. Poor Doctor! How things had changed from the days when his mobs

would meet the troops shot for shot in the streets of Alcira, shouting

_vivas_ for the Federal Republic!... In his solitude and in all the

dejection coming from the defeat of his perverted ideas, he took more

than ever to music. He had but one joy left him. Leonora loved music as

much as he. She learned her lessons rapidly; and soon could accompany

her father's violoncello on the piano. They would spend the days playing

together, going through the whole pile of music sheets they kept stored

in the attic along with those accursed medical books. Besides, the

little girl showed she had a voice, and it seemed to grow fuller and

more beautiful every day. 'She will be a singer, a great singer,' her

father proclaimed enthusiastically. And when some tenant of his or one

of his dependents came into the house and could hardly believe his ears

at the sweetness of the little angel's voice, the Doctor would rub his

hands and gleefully exclaim: 'What do you think of the little lady,

eh?... Some day people in Alcira will be proud she was born here.'"

Don Andrés paused to sift his recollections, and after a long silence

added:

"The truth is, I can't tell you any more. At that time, we were in power

again, and I had very little to do with the Doctor. We gradually lost

sight of him, forgot him, practically. The music we heard when going by

the house was all there was to remind us of him. We learned one day,

through his sister, doña Pepa, that he had gone way off with the little

girl somewhere--what was that city you visited, Rafael?--Milan, yes,

Milan, that's it! I've been told that's the market for singers. He

wanted his Leonora to become a prima donna. He never came back, poor

fellow!... Things must have gone badly with them. Every year he would

write home to his sister to sell another piece of land. It is known that

over there they lived in real poverty. In a few years the little fortune

the Doctor got from his parents was gone. Poor doña Pepa, kind old soul,

even disposed of the house--which belonged half to the Doctor and half

to her--sent him every cent of the money, and moved to the orchard. Ever

since then she's been coming in to mass and to Forty Hours in all sorts

of weather. I could learn nothing for certain after that. People lie so,

you see. Some say poor Moreno shot himself because his daughter left him

when she got placed on the stage; others say that he died like a dog in

a poorhouse. The only sure thing is that he died and that his daughter

went on having a great time all over those countries over there. The

way she went it! They even say she had a king or two. As for money! Say,

boys, there are ways and ways of earning it, and ways and ways of

spending it! The fellow who knows all about that side of her is the

barber Cupido. He imagines he's an artist, because he plays the guitar;

and besides he has a Republican grouch, and was a great admirer of her

father's. He's the only one in town who followed all she was up to, in

the papers. They say she doesn't sing under her own name, but uses some

prettier sounding one--foreign, I believe. Cupido is a regular busybody

and you can get all the latest news in his barbershop. Only yesterday he

went to doña Pepa's farmhouse to greet the '_eminent artist_,' as he

calls her. There's no end to what he tells. Trunks in every corner,

enough to pack a house-full of things into, and silk dresses ...

shopfuls of them! Hats, I can't say how many; jewelry-boxes on every

table with diamonds that strike you blind. And she told Cupido to have

the station-agent get a move on and send what was still missing--the

heavier luggage--boxes and boxes that come from way off somewhere--the

other end of the world, and that cost a fortune just to ship.... There

you are!... And why not? The way she earned it!"

Don Andrés winking maliciously and laughing like an old faun, gave a sly

nudge at Rafael, who was listening in deep abstraction to the story.

"But is she going to live on here?" asked the young man. "Accustomed as

she is to flitting about the world, do you think she'll be able to stand

this place?"

"Nobody can tell," don Andrés replied. "Not even Cupido can find that

out. She'll stay until she gets bored, he says. And to be in less danger

of that, she has brought her whole establishment along on her back, like

a snail."

"Well, she'll be bored soon enough," one of Rafael's friends observed.

"I suppose she thinks she's going to be admired and stared at as she was

abroad! Moreno's girl! Did you ever hear of such a family?... Daughter

of that _descamisado_, as my father calls him because he died without a

stitch on his back! And all people say of them! Last night her arrival

was the subject of conversation in every decent home in town, and there

wasn't a man who did not promise to fight shy of her. If she thinks

Alcira is anything like the places where they dance the razzle-dazzle

and there's no shame, she'll be sadly disappointed."

Don Andrés laughed slyly.

"Yes, boys! She'll be disappointed. There's a plenty of morality in this

town, and much wholesome fear of scandal. We're probably as bad as

people in other places, but we don't want anybody to find us out. I'm

afraid this Leonora is going to spend most of her time with her aunt--a

silly old thing, whatever her many virtues may be. They say she's

brought a French maid along.... But she's beginning to cry 'sour grapes'

already. Do you know what she said to Cupido yesterday? That she had

come here with the idea of living all by herself, just to get away from

people; and when the barber spoke to her of society in Alcira, she made

a wry face, as much as to say the place was filled with no-accounts.

That's what the women were talking most about last night. You can see

why! She has always been the favorite of so many big guns!"

An idea seemed to flit across the wrinkled forehead of don Andrés,

tracing a wicked smile around his lips:

"You know what I think, Rafael? You're young and you're handsome, and

you've been abroad. Why don't you make a try for her, if only to prick

the bubble of her conceit and show her there are people here, too. They

say she's mighty good-looking, and, what the deuce! It wouldn't be so

hard. When she finds out who you are!..."

The old man said this with the idea of flattering Rafael, certain that

the prestige of his "prince" was such that no woman could resist him.

But Rafael had lived through the previous afternoon, and the words

seemed very bitter pills. Don Andrés at once grew serious, as if a

frightful vision had suddenly passed before his eyes; and he added in a

respectful tone:

"But no: that was only a jest. Don't pay any attention to what I say.

Your mother would be terribly provoked."

The thought of doña Bernarda, the personification of austere,

uncompromising virtue, chased the mirth from every face in the company.

"The strange thing about all this," said Rafael, who was anxious to turn

the conversation in a different direction, "is that now everybody

remembers the Doctor's daughter. But years and years went by without her

name being mentioned, in my hearing at least."

"Well, it's a question of District matters, you see," the old man

answered. "All I've been telling you boys, happened long before your

day, and your parents, who knew the Doctor and his daughter, have always

been careful not to bring this woman into their conversation; for, as

Rafael's mother says, she's the disgrace of Alcira. From time to time we

got a bit of news; something that Cupido fished out of the newspapers

and spread all over town, or something that that silly doña Pepa would

let drop, while telling inquisitive people about the glories her niece

was winning abroad; anyhow, all a heap of lies that were invented I

don't know where or by whom. They kept all that quiet, banking the fire,

so to speak. If it hadn't got into the girl's head to come back to

Alcira, you would never have heard of her probably. But now she's here,

and they're telling all they know, or think they know, about her life,

digging up tales of things that happened years and years ago. You take

my word for it, boys, I've always considered her a high-flyer myself,

but, just the same, people here do tell awful whoppers ... and swear to

them. She can't be as bad as they say ... If one were to swallow

everything one hears! Wasn't poor don Ramón the greatest man the

District ever produced? Well, what don't they say about him?..."

And the conversation drifted away from Doctor Moreno's daughter. Rafael

had learned all he wished to know. That woman had been born within a few

hundred yards of his own birthplace. They had passed their childhood

years almost side by side; and yet, on meeting for the first time in

their lives, they had felt themselves complete strangers to each other.

This separation would increase with time. She made fun of the city,

lived outside its circle of influence, in the open country; she would

not meet the town halfway, and the town would not go to her.

How get to know her better, then?... Rafael was tempted as he walked

aimlessly about the streets, to look up the barber Cupido in his shop

that very afternoon. That merry rogue was the only person in all Alcira

who entered her house. But Brull did not dare, for fear of gossip. His

dignity as a party leader forbade his entering that barbershop where the

walls were papered with copies of "Revolution" and where a picture of Pi

y Margall reigned in place of the King's. How could he justify his

presence in a place he had never visited before? How explain to Cupido

his interest in that woman, without having the whole city know about it

before sundown?

Twice he walked up and down in front of the striped window-panes of the

barbershop, without mustering the courage to raise the latch. Finally he

sauntered off toward the orchards, following the riverbank slowly along,

with his gaze fixed on that blue house, which had never before attracted

his attention, but which now seemed the most beautiful detail in that

ample paradise of orange-trees.

Through the groves he could see the balcony of the house, and on it a

woman unfolding shining gowns of delicate colors. She was shaking the

prima donna's skirts to straighten out the wrinkles and the folds caused

by the packing in the trunks.

It was the Italian maid--that Beppa of the reddish hair whom he had seen

the previous afternoon with her mistress.

He thought the girl was looking at him, and that she even recognized

him through the foliage, despite the distance. He felt a sudden

timorousness, like a child caught redhanded doing something wrong. He

turned in his tracks and strode rapidly off toward the city.

But later, he felt quite comforted. Merely to have approached the Blue

House seemed like progress toward acquaintance with the beautiful

Leonora.

V

All work had stopped on the rich lands of the _ribera_.

The first winter rains were falling over the entire District. Day after

day the gray sky, heavy with clouds, seemed to reach down and touch the

very tops of the trees. The reddish soil of the fields grew dark under

the continuous downpour; the roads, winding deep between the mudwalls

and the fences of the orchards, were changed to rushing streams. The

weeping orange-trees seemed to shrink and cringe under the deluge, as if

in aggrieved protest at the sudden anger of that kindly, friendly land

of sunshine.

The Júcar was rising. The waters, turned to so much liquid clay, lashed

red and slimy against the buttresses of the bridges. People living along

the banks followed the swelling of the river with anxious eyes, studying

the markers placed along the shores to note how the water was coming up.

_"Munta?"_ ... asked the people from the interior, in their quaint

dialect.

_"Munta!"_ answered the river dwellers.

And the water was indeed slowly rising, already threatening the city

that had so audaciously taken root in the very middle of its bed.

But despite the danger, the townspeople seemed to be feeling nothing

more than uneasy curiosity. No one thought of moving across the bridges

to take refuge on the high land. Nonsense! The Júcar was always

flooding. You had to expect something of the sort every once in a while.

Thank heaven there was something to break the monotony of life in that

sleepy town! Why complain at a week's vacation? It was hard to disturb

the placid complacency of those descendants of the Moors. Floods had

been coming since the days of their fathers, their grandfathers and

their great-grandfathers, and never had the town been carried off. A few

houses at the worst. Why suppose the catastrophe would be due now?...

The Júcar was a sort of husband to Alcira. As happens in any decent

family, there would be a quarrel now and then--a thrashing followed by

kisses and reconciliation. Just imagine--living seven or eight centuries

together! Besides,--and this the lesser people thought--there was Father

San Bernardo, as powerful as God Himself in all that concerned Alcira.

He was able, single-handed, to tame the writhing monster that wound its

coiling way underneath the bridges.

It rained day and night; and yet the city, from its animation, seemed to

be having a holiday. The young ones, sent home from school because of

the bad weather, were all on the bridges throwing branches into the

water to see how swift the current was, or playing along the lanes close

to the river, planting sticks in the banks and waiting for the

ever-broadening torrent to reach them.

Under the shelter of the projecting eaves, whence broken water-spouts

were belching streams as thick as a man's arm, loungers in the cafés

would slip along the streets toward the river-front; and after glancing

at the flood from the scant protection of their umbrellas, would make

their way proudly back, stopping in every drinking place to offer their

opinions on the rise that had taken place since their previous

inspection.

The city from end to end was one seething storm of heated, typically

"Southern" argument and prophecy. Friendships were being made and

broken, over questions as to whether the river had risen four inches the

past hour, or only one, and as to whether this freshet were more

important than the one five years before.

Meantime the sky kept on weeping through its countless eyes; the river,

roaring more wrathful every moment, was now licking at the ends of the

low-lying streets near the bank, creeping up into the gardens on the

shore, stealing in between the orange-trees, opening holes in the hedges

and the mudwalls.

The main concern of the populace was whether it were raining also in the

mountains of Cuenca. If much water came down from there, the flood would

become serious. And experienced eyes studied the color of the waters

carefully. If there was any black in them, it meant they came from the

upper provinces.

The cloud-burst lasted for two whole days. The night of the second day

closed, and the roar of the river sounded forebodingly in the darkness.

On its black surface lights could be seen reflected like restless

flashes of flame--candles from the shore houses and lanterns of watchmen

on guard along the banks.

In the lower streets the water was coming under the doors into the

houses. Women and children were taking refuge in the garrets while the

men, with their trousers rolled up to their knees, were splashing about

in the liquid silt, carrying their farming tools to places of safety, or

tugging at some donkey who would be balking at going too deep into the

water.

All these people of the suburbs, on finding their houses flooded in the

darkness of night, lost the jesting calm which they had so boastfully

displayed during the daytime. Now fear of the supernatural came over

them, and with childish anxiety they sought protection of some Higher

Power to avert the danger. Perhaps this freshet was the final one!

Perhaps they were the victims destined to perish in the final downfall

of the city!... Women began to shriek with terror on seeing their

wretched lanes converted into deep canals.

"_El pare San Bernat!... Que traguen al pare San Bernat_! Father Saint

Bernard!... Let them fetch father Saint Bernard!"

The men looked at each other uneasily. Nobody could handle a matter like

this so well as the glorious patron. It was now high time to have

recourse to him, as had so often been done before, and get him to

perform his miracle.

They ought to go to the City Council, and compel the big guns there, in

spite of their scepticism, to bring the saint out for the consolation of

the poor.

In an hour a veritable army was formed. Mobs issued from the dark lanes,

paddling in the water like frogs, and raising their war-cry: "_San

Bernat! San Bernat_!"; the men, with their sleeves and trousers rolled

up, or even entirely naked save for the sash that is never removed from

the skin of a Valencian peasant; the women, with their skirts raised

over their heads for protection, sinking their tanned, skinny,

over-worked legs into the slime, and all drenched from head to foot, the

wet clothes sticking to their bodies; and at the head, a number of

strong young men with four-wicked tapers lighted, sputtering and

crackling in the rain and casting a weird flickering radiance back over

the clamoring multitude.

"_San Bernat! San Bernat!... Viva el pare San Bernat!_ Father Saint

Bernard, _viva_!"

Under the drizzle pouring from the sky and the streams tumbling from the

eavespouts, the mob rushed along through the streets in a wild riot.

Doors and windows flew open, and new voices were added to the delirious

uproar, while at every crossing recruits would come to swell the

on-rushing avalanche headed for the _Ayuntamiento_. Muskets, ancient

blunderbusses, and horse-pistols as big as guns, could be seen in the

menacing throng, as though those wild forms were to compel the granting

of a petition that might be denied, or to slay the river, perhaps.

The _alcalde_, with all the members of the council, was waiting at the

door of the City Hall. They had come running to the place, marshalling

the _alguacils_ and the patrols, to face and quell the mutiny.

"What do you want?" the Mayor asked the crowd.

What did they want! They wanted the one remedy, the one salvation, for

the city: they wanted to take the omnipotent saint to the bank of the

river that he might awe it with his presence, just as their ancestors

had been doing for centuries and centuries, and thanks to which the city

was still standing!

Some of the city people, whom the peasants regarded as atheists, began

to smile at the strange request. Wouldn't it be better to spend the time

getting all the valuables out of the houses on the bank? A tempest of

protests followed this proposal. "Out with the saint! Out with _San

Bernat!_ We want the miracle! The miracle!" Those simple people were

thinking of the wonders they had learned in their childhood at their

mothers' knees; times in former centuries, when it had been enough for

San Bernardo to appear on a river road, to start the flood down again,

draining off from the orchard lands as water leaks from a broken

pitcher.

The _alcalde_, a liegeman of the Brull dynasty, was in a quandary. He

was afraid of that ugly mob and was anxious to yield, as usual; but it

would be a serious breach of etiquette not to consult "the chief."

Fortunately, just as the huge, dark mass of human beings was beginning

to surge in indignation at his silence, and hisses and shouts of anger

were being raised, Rafael appeared.

Doña Bernarda had sent him out at the first sign of uneasiness in the

populace. It was in circumstances such as these that her husband used to

shine, taking the helm in every crisis, giving orders and settling

questions, though to no avail at all. But when the river returned to its

normal level, and danger was past, the peasant would remember don

Ramón's "sacrifices" and call him the father of the poor. If the

miraculous saint must come out, let Rafael be the one to produce him!

The elections were at hand. The flood could not have come in better

time. There must be no false steps, no frightening opportunity away.

Something rather must be done to get people to talking about him as they

used to talk about his father on similar occasions.

So Rafael, after having the purpose of this demonstration explained to

him by the most ardent of the leaders, gave a magnificent gesture of

consent:

"Granted; have _San Bernat_ brought out!"

With a thunder of applause and _vivas_ for young Brull, the black

avalanche headed rumbling for the church.

They must now persuade the curate to take the saint out, and that good

priest--a fat, kindly, but rather shrewd fellow--always objected to what

he called a bit of old-fashioned mummery. The truth was he looked

forward with little pleasure to a tramp out in the rain at the head of a

procession, trying to keep dry under an umbrella, with his _soutane_

rolled up to his knees, and his shoes coming off at every step in the

mire. Besides, some day, in the very face of San Bernardo, the river

might carry half the city off, and then what a fix, what a fix, religion

would be in, all on account of those disturbers of the peace!

Rafael and his henchmen of the _Ayuntamiento_ tried their hardest to

convince the curate; but his only reply was to ask whether water was

coming down from Cuenca.

"I believe it is," said the _alcalde_. "You can see that makes the

danger worse. It's more than ever necessary to bring out the saint."

"Well, if there's water coming down from Cuenca," the priest answered,

"we'd better let it come, and San Bernardo also had better keep

indoors, at home. Matters concerning saints must be treated with great

discretion, take my word for that.... And, if you don't agree with me,

just remember that freshet when the river got above the bridges. We

brought the saint out, and the river almost carried him off downstream."

The crowd, growing restless at the delay, began to shout against the

priest. The good sense of that canny churchman was powerless in the face

of superstitions instilled by centuries of fanaticism.

"Since you will it so, so let it be," he said gravely. "Let the Saint

come forth, and may the Lord have mercy on us!"

A frenzied acclamation burst from the crowd, which now filled the whole

square in front of the church. The rain continued falling, and above the

serried ranks of heads covered with skirts, cloaks, and an occasional

umbrella, the flames of the tapers flickered, staining the wet faces

red.

The people smiled happily in all their discomfort from the downpour.

Confident of success, they were foretasting gleefully the terror of the

stream at sight of the blessed image entering its waters. What could not

San Bernardo do? His marvelous history, a blend of Moorish and Christian

romance, flamed in all those credulous imaginations. He was a saint

native to that region--the second son of the Moorish king of Carlet.

Through his talent, courtesy and beauty he won such success at court in

Valencia, that he rose to the post of prime minister.

Once when his sovereign had to have some dealings with the king of

Aragon, he sent San Bernardo, who at that time was called Prince Hamete,

to Barcelona. During his journey he drew up one night at the portal of

the monastery of Poblet. The chants of the Cistercians, drifting

mystical and vague through the Gothic arches, moved the Saracen youth to

the bottom of his soul. He felt drawn to the religion of his enemies by

the magic of its poetry. He received baptism, assumed the white habit of

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and later returned to the kingdom of

Valencia to preach Christianity. There he enjoyed the tolerance Saracen

monarchs always had for new religious doctrines. He converted his two

sisters--beautiful Mooresses they were--and they took the names of

Gracia and Maria, and aflame in turn with pious fervor, they chose to go

with their brother on his tour of preachment.

But the old king of Carlet had died, and his first-born--the arrogant

Almanzor, a brutal, vainglorious Moor--succeeded to the rulership of the

tiny state--a sort of military satrapy. This haughty potentate, offended

in his magnificence to see members of his family traveling over the

roads dressed like vagabonds and preaching a religion of beggars, called

a troop of horse and set out in pursuit of his brother and sisters. He

came upon them near Alcira, hiding on the riverbank. With one slash of

his sword he cut the heads off both his sisters; San Bernardo he

crucified and drove a big nail through his forehead. Thus the sacred

preacher perished, but all the humble continued to adore him; for here

was a handsome prince, who had turned to a poor man, become a wandering

mendicant even--a sacrifice that endeared him to the poorest of his

votaries. Of all this that crowd of peasants was thinking as it shouted

_vivas_ to San Bernardo, now, surely, prime minister of God, as he had

been of the pagan king of Valencia.

The procession was rapidly organized. Along the narrow lanes of the

island where the rain coursed in streams, people kept coming in droves.

They were barefoot for the most part, but some were sinking shoes

indifferently into the water. Most of them had tapers or shotguns. The

women did their best to shelter little ones under the skirts they had

gathered about their heads. The musicians, all barefoot, were in regular

uniform--gold braided jackets and plumed hats--looking for all the world

like Malay chiefs who beautify their nakedness with castoff coats and

three-cornered hats the missionaries give them.

In front of the church the lights of the tapers blended into one great

flare. Through the wide doorway the candles on the altars gleamed like a

distant constellation.

The whole neighborhood, almost, had assembled in the square, despite the

increasing rain. Many had come to scoff. What a farce it all would be!

They did well, however, to wait two days! The rain was almost over. It

would probably stop by the time they got the Saint out!

In double file of tapers the procession began to move between two lines

of tightly jammed spectators.

"_Vitol el pare San Bernat!_ Hurrah for father San Bernardo!" a

multitude of hoarse voices cried.

"_Vitol les chermanetes_! Hurrah for his sisters!" others added, to

correct the lack of gallantry displayed by the most enthusiastic of the

idolators in putting ladies last.

For the sisters, the holy martyrs, Gracia and Maria, also figured in

the procession. San Bernardo never went anywhere alone. As even children

in baby-school knew, not a power on earth, not all the men and horses in

the orchards put together, could lift the saint from his altar unless

his sisters went first. That was one of his miracles long accredited by

tradition. He had very little confidence in women--less pious

commentators said--and not willing to trust his sisters out of sight, he

insisted that they precede him whenever he left his pedestal.

The holy sisters appeared in the church doorway, swaying on their

litters above the heads of the worshippers.

"_Vitol les chermanetes!_"

And the poor _chermanetes_, dripping from every fold of their vestments,

came out into that dark, tempestuous, rain-soaked atmosphere that was

rent by sheaves of crude light from the tapers.

The musicians tuned their instruments, ready to break into the Royal

March! In the brilliantly lighted doorway something shining could be

seen laboriously advancing, swaying this way and that, as if the waves

of an angry sea were rocking it.

The crowd again began to cheer, and the music sounded.

"_Vitol el pare San Bernat!_"

But the music and the acclamations were drowned by a deafening crash, as

if the island had suddenly burst into a thousand pieces, dragging the

city to the depths of the Abyss. The square was shooting a fusillade of

lightning flashes, a veritable cannonade. Those ancient arms,

blunderbusses, muzzle-loaders, pistols, crammed full of powder, could

roar like artillery. All the guns in the neighborhood were saluting the

appearance of the Saint. And the crowd, drunk with the smell of powder,

began to shout and gesticulate in the presence of that bronze image,

whose round, kindly face--that of a healthy well-fed friar--seemed to

quiver with life in the light of the torches.

Eight strong men, almost naked, came forward staggering under the weight

of the metal saint. The crowd surged against them, threatening to upset

the statue. But two bare-breasted strong-armed boys, devotees of the

patron, were marching on either side, and they fought the multitude

back.

The women, shoved hither and thither and almost suffocated in the jam,

burst into tears as their gaze fell upon the miraculous image.

"_Ay_, father San Bernardo! Father San Bernardo! Save us! Save us!"

Others dragged children out from the folds of their skirts, and held

them out above their heads toward the powerful guards.

"Lift him up! Let him kiss the Saint!"

And those muscular peasants would pick the children up like dolls, now

by an arm, now by a leg, now by the nape of the neck, raise them to a

level with the saint, that they might kiss the bronze face, and then

toss them back into the arms of their mothers, working like automatons,

dropping one child to seize another, with the regularity of machines in

action. Many times the impact was too rough; the noses of the children

would flatten against the folds of the metallic garb; but the fervor of

the crowd seemed to infect the little ones. They were the future adorers

of the Moorish monk. Rubbing their bruises with their soft little hands

they would swallow their tears and return to their snug places in their

mothers' skirts.

Behind the glorious saint marched Rafael and the gentlemen of the

_Ayuntamiento_ with long wax tapers; and after them the curate,

grumbling as he heard the first dashes of rain beat on the large red

silk umbrella which the sacristan held over him, and felt the impact of

the crowd of orchard-folk, that was mixed at random with the musicians.

The latter, paying more attention to where they stepped than to their

instruments, played a rather discordant march. Guns, meanwhile,

continued to blaze away. The wild cheering for San Bernardo and his

sisters went on; and, framed in a red nimbus of torch-light, greeted at

every street-corner by a new fusillade, the image sailed along over that

sea of heads, pelted by the rain, which, in the light of the candles,

looked like a maze of transparent crystal threads. Around the saint the

arms of the athletes kept ever moving, lifting children up to bump their

drooling noses on the bronze of father San Bernardo. Balconies and

windows along the way were filled with women, their heads protected by

their skirts.

Sighs, wails, exclamations of entreaty welcomed the passing saint in a

chorus of despair and hope.

"Save us, father San Bernardo!... Save us!..."

The procession reached the river, crossing and recrossing the bridges

that led to the suburbs. The flickering torches were mirrored in the

dark edges of the stream, which was growing momentarily more terrifying

and clamorous. The water had not yet reached the railing, as at other

times. Miracle! San Bernardo was at work already!

Then the procession marched to points where the river had flooded the

lanes near the bank, and turned them to virtual ponds. The more

fanatical of the devotees, lifting their tapers above their heads, went

out fearlessly neck high into the water: for surely the Saint must not

go in alone.

One old man, shaking with malaria, caught in the rice-fields, and hardly

able to hold the taper in his trembling hands, hesitated at the brink of

the stream.

"Go on in, _agüelo_!" the women encouraged affectionately. "Father San

Bernardo will cure you. Don't lose such a chance!"

When the saint was out performing miracles, he might remember the old

man, too. So _agüelo_--"grandaddy"--shivering in his drenched clothes

and his teeth chattering, walked resolutely in.

The statue was making its way very slowly along the inundated streets,

for the feet of the bearers sank deep into the water under their load;

and they could advance at all only with the aid of the faithful, who

gathered about the litter on all sides to help. A writhing mass of bare,

sinewy arms rose from the water like tentacles of a human octopus to

carry the Saint along.

Just behind the image came the curate and the political dignitaries,

riding astride the shoulders of some enthusiasts who, for the greater

pomp of the ceremony, were willing to serve as mounts, though the tapers

of their riders kept getting into their faces.

The curate began to feel the cold water creeping up his back, and

ordered the Saint inshore again. In fact San Bernardo was already at

the end of the lane, and actually in the river itself. His guards of

honor were having a time of it to keep their feet in the face of the

current, but they were still willing to go on, believing that the

farther the statue went into the stream, the sooner the waters would go

down. At last, however, the most foolhardy withdrew. The Saint came

back. Though the procession at once went on to the next road and to the

next, repeating the same performance.

And suddenly it stopped raining.

A wild cheer, a shout of joy and triumph, shook the multitude.

"_Vitol el pare San Bernat_!..." Now would the people of the neighboring

towns dare dispute his immense power?... There was the proof! Two days

of incessant downpour, and then, the moment the Saint showed his face

out of doors--fair weather! Excuse me!

In fervent thanksgiving weeping women rushed upon the saint and began to

kiss whatever part of the image was within reach--the handles of the

litter, the decorations of the pedestal, the bronze body itself. The

tottering structure of wood and metal began to stagger and reel like a

frail bark tossing over a sea of shrieking heads and extended arms that

trembled with exaltation.

The procession marched on for more than an hour still along the river.

Then the priest, who was dripping wet and had exhausted more than a

dozen "horses" under him, forbade it to continue. Leave it to those

peasants, and the nonsense would go on till dawn! So the curate observed

that the Saint had already done what was required of him. Now it was

time to go home!

Rafael handed his taper to one of his henchmen and stopped on the bridge

with a number of experienced observers, who were lamenting the damage

done by the flood. At every moment, no one could say just how, alarming

reports of the destruction wrought by the river were coming in. Now a

mill had been isolated by the waters, and the people there had taken

refuge on the roof, firing their shotguns as signals of distress. Many

orchards had been completely submerged. The few boats available in the

city were doing the best they could in the work of rescue. The valley

had become one vast lake. Rowboats caught in the shifting currents were

in danger of smashing against hidden obstructions; and it was

practically impossible to push a punt upstream with oars.

Yet the people spoke with relative calmness. They were accustomed to

this almost annual visitation, and accepted it resignedly as an

inevitable evil. Besides, they referred hopefully to telegrams received

by the _alcalde_. By dawn help would be coming in. The governor in

Valencia was sending a detachment of marines, and the lagoon would be

filled with navy boats. Everything would be all right in a few hours.

But if the water got much higher meanwhile ...!

They consulted stakes and other water marks along the river, and violent

disputes arose. Rafael, for his part, could see the flood was still

rising, though but slowly.

The peasants refused to believe it. How could the river rise after

Father San Bernardo had gone into it? No, sir! it was _not_ rising. That

was all a lie intended to discredit the patron. And a sturdy youth with

flashing eyes threatened to disembowel with one stroke of his

knife--like that!--a certain scoffer who maintained that the river would

go on rising if only for the pleasure of refuting that charlatan of a

friar.

Rafael approached the brawlers, and by the dim lantern light recognized

Cupido--the barber--a sarcastic fellow, with curly side-whiskers and an

aquiline nose, who took great pleasure in poking fun at the barbarous,

unshakable faith of the illiterate peasants.

Brull knew the barber very well. The man was one of his childhood

favorites. Fear of his mother was the only thing that had kept him from

frequenting Cupido's shop--the rendezvous of the city's gayest set, a

hotbed of gossip and practical jokes, a school of guitar playing and

love songs that kept the whole neighborhood astir. Besides, Cupido was

the freak of the city, the sharp-tongued but irresponsible practical

joker, who was forgiven everything in advance, and could enjoy his

idiosyncrasies and speak his mind about people without starting a riot

against him. He was, for instance, the one person in Alcira who scoffed

at the tyranny of the Brulls without thereby losing entrance to the

Party Club, where the young men admired his wit and his eccentric way of

dressing.

Rafael was still fond of Cupido, though not very intimate with him. In

all the sedate, conservative world around him, the barber seemed the

only person really worth while talking with. Cupido was almost an

artist. In winter he would go to Valencia to hear the operas praised by

the newspapers, and in one corner of his shop he had heaps of novels and

illustrated magazines, much mildewed and softened by the damp, and their

leaves worn through from continual thumbing by customers.

He had very little to do with Rafael, guessing that the youth's mother

would not regard such a friendship with any too much favor; but he

displayed a certain liking for the boy; and addressed him familiarly,

having known him as a child. Of Rafael he said everywhere:

"He's the best one in the family; the only Brull with more brains than

crookedness."

Nothing too small for Cupido to notice ever happened in Alcira. Every

weakness, every foible of the city's celebrities was made public by him

in his barbershop, to the delight of the Opposition, whose members

gathered there to read their party organ. The gentlemen of the

_Ayuntamiento_ feared the barber more than any ten newspapers combined,

and whenever some famous Conservative minister referred in parliament to

a "revolutionary hydra" or a "hotbed of anarchy," they pictured to

themselves a barbershop like that of Cupido, but much larger perhaps,

scattering a poisonous atmosphere of cruel gibe and perverse effrontery

all through the nation.

The barber was inevitably on hand where anything was going on. It might

be at the very end of the suburbs, or away out in the country. In a few

moments Cupido would put in an appearance to learn all about it, give

advice to those who might need it, arbitrate between disputants and

afterward tell the whole story with a thousand embellishments.

He had plenty of time on his hands for leading such a life. Two young

fellows, as crazy as their employer, tended shop. Cupido paid them with

music-lessons and meals--better or worse these latter, according to the

day's receipts, which were divided fraternally among the three. And if

the "boss" sometimes astonished the city by going out for a walk in

midwinter in a suit of white duck, they, not to be outdone, would shave

off their hair and eyebrows and show heads as smooth as billiard-balls

behind the shop windows, to the great commotion of the city, which would

flock _en masse_ to see "Cupido's Chinamen."

A flood was always a great day for the barber. He closed shop and

planted himself out on a bridge, oblivious to wind and rain, haranguing

the crowds of spectators, terrifying the stupid with his exaggerations

and inventions, and announcing hair-raising news which he asserted he

had just received from the Governor by telegraph, and according to

which, in two hours, there would not be a cellar-hole left of the place.

Even the miracle-working San Bernardo would be washed into the sea!

When Rafael found him upon the bridge that night, after the procession,

Cupido was on the point of coming to blows with several rustics, who had

grown indignant at his heresies.

Stepping aside from the crowd, the two began a conversation about the

dangers of the flood. Cupido, as usual, was well-informed. He had been

told a poor old man had been cut off in an orchard and drowned. That was

probably not the only accident that had taken place. Horses and pigs in

large numbers had drifted past under the bridge, early in the afternoon.

The barber talked earnestly and with some sadness, it seemed. Rafael

listened in silence, scanning his face anxiously, as if looking for a

chance to speak of something which he dared not broach.

"And how about the Blue House," he ventured finally, "that farm of doña

Pepa's where you go sometimes? Will anything be wrong down there?"

"It's a good solid place," the barber replied, "and this isn't the first

flood it's been through.... But it's right on the river, and by this

time the garden must be a lake; the water will surely be up to the

second story. I'll bet doña Pepa's poor niece is scared out of her

wits... Just imagine--coming from so far away and from such pretty

places, and running into a mess like this ..."

Rafael seemed to meditate for a moment. Then as if an idea that had been

dancing about in his head all day had just occurred to him, he said:

"Suppose we take a run down there!... What do you say, Cupido?"

"Down there!... And how'll we get there?"

But the proposal, from its very rashness, was bound to appeal to a man

like the barber, who at length began to laugh, as if the adventure were

a highly amusing one.

"You're right! We could get through! It will look funny, all right! Us

two paddling up like a couple of Venetian gondoliers to serenade a

celebrated prima donna in her fright ... I've a good mind to run home

and fetch my guitar along ..."

"What the devil, Cupido! No guitar business! What a josher you are! Our

job is to get those women out of there. They'll get drowned if we

don't."

The barber, insisting on his romantic idea, fixed a pair of shrewd eyes

on Rafael.

"I see! So you're interested in the illustrious _artiste_, too ... You

rascal! You're smitten on her reputation for good looks ... But no ... I

remember ... you've seen her; she told me so herself."

"She!... She spoke to you about me?"

"Oh, nothing important! She told me she saw you one afternoon up at the

Hermitage."

Cupido kept the rest to himself. He did not say that Leonora, on

mentioning Rafael's name, had added that he looked like an "idiot."

Rafael's heart leaped with joy! She had talked of him! She had not

forgotten that meeting which had left such a painful memory in him!...

What was he doing, then, standing like a fool there on that bridge, when

down at the Blue House they might be needing a man's help?

"Listen, Cupido; I have my boat right handy here; you know, the boat

father had made to order in Valencia as a present for me. Steel frame;

hard wood; safe as a warship. You know the river ... I've seen you

handle an oar more than once; and I've got a pair of arms myself ...

What do you say?"

"I say, let's go," the barber answered resolutely.

They asked for a torch, and with the help of several men dragged

Rafael's boat toward a stairway on the riverbank.

Above, through the crowds on the bridge, the news of the expedition

flashed, but exaggerated and much idealized by the curious. The men were

going to save a poor family that had taken refuge on the roof of a

house--poor devils in danger of being swept off at any moment. Rafael

had learned of their plight, and he was starting to save them at the

risk of his own skin. And a wealthy, powerful man like him, with so much

to live for! Damn it, those Brulls were all men, anyhow!... And yet see

how people talked against them! What a heart! And the peasants followed

the blood-red glow of the torch in the boat as it mirrored across the

waters, gazing adoringly at Rafael, who was sitting in the stern. Out of

the dark entreating voices called. Many loyal followers of the Brulls

were eager to go with the chief--drown with him, if need be.

Cupido protested. No; for a job like that, the fewer the better; the

boat had to be light; he would do for the oars and Rafael could steer.

"Let her go! Let her go!" called Rafael.

And the boat, after hesitating a second, shot off on the current.

In the narrow gorge between the Old City and the New, the swollen

torrent swept them along like lightning. The barber used his oars just

to keep the boat away from the shore. Submerged rocks sent great

whirlpools to the surface and pulled the boat this way and that. The

light of the torch cast a dull reddish glow out over the muddy eddies.

Tree trunks, refuse, dead animals, went floating by, shapeless masses

with only a few dark points visible above the surface, as though some

dead man covered with mud were swimming under water. Out on that

swirling current, with the slimy vapors of the river rising to his

nostrils and the eddies sucking and boiling all around, Rafael thought

himself the victim of a weird nightmare and began even to repent of his

rashness. Cries kept coming from houses close to the river; windows were

suddenly lighted up; and from them great shadowy arms like the wings of

a windmill waved in greeting to that red flame which people saw gliding

past along the river, bringing the outlines of the boat and the two men

into distinct view. The news of their expedition had spread throughout

the city and people were on the watch for them as they sped by: "_Viva_

don Rafael! _Viva_ Brull!"

But the hero who was risking his life to save a family of poor folks out

there in the darkness of that sticky, murky, sepulchral night, had in

mind only one thing--a blue house, into which he was to penetrate at

last, in so strange and romantic a fashion.

From time to time a scraping sound or a jolt of the boat would bring him

back to reality.

"Your tiller there!" Cupido would shout, without, however, taking his

eyes from the water ahead. "Look out, Rafaelito, or we'll get smashed!"

The boat was indeed a good one, for any other, would long before have

come to grief in those rapids jammed with rocks and debris.

They were around the city in no time. Few lighted windows were now to be

seen. High, steep banks of slippery mud--quite unscalable--crested with

walls, were slipping past on either hand, with an occasional palisade,

the piles just emerging from the water. Somewhat ahead, the open river,

where the two arms that girt the Old City reunited in what was now a

vast lake!

The two men went on blindly. All normal landmarks were gone. The banks

had disappeared, and in the blackness, beyond the red circle of torch

light, they could make out only water and then more water--an immense

incessantly rolling sheet that was taking them they knew not where. From

time to time a black spot would show above the muddy surface; the crest

of some submerged canebrake; the top of a tree; a strange, fantastic

vegetation that seemed to be writhing in the gloom. The river, free now

from the gorges and shallows around the city, had ceased its roaring. It

seethed and swirled along in absolute silence, effacing all trace of the

land. The two men felt like a couple of shipwrecked sailors adrift on a

shoreless, sunless ocean, alone save for the reddish flame flickering at

the prow, and the submerged treetops that appeared and vanished rapidly.

"Better begin to row, Cupido," said Rafael. "The current is very strong.

We must be still in the river. Let's turn to the right and see if we can

get into the orchards."

The barber bent to the oars, and the boat, slowly, on account of the

current, came around and headed for a line of tree-tops that peered

above the surface of the flood like seaweed floating on the ocean.

Shortly the bottom began to scrape on invisible obstacles. Entanglements

below were clutching at the keel, and it took some effort occasionally

to get free. The lake was still dark and apparently shoreless, but the

current was not so strong and the surface had stopped rolling. The two

men knew they had reached dead water. What looked like dark, gigantic

mushrooms, huge umbrellas, or lustrous domes, caught the reflection of

the torch, at times. Those were orange-trees. The rescuers were in the

orchards. But in which? How find the way in the darkness? Here and there

the branches were too thick to break through and the boat would tip as

if it were going over. They would back water, make a detour, or try

another route.

They were going very slowly for fear of striking something, zig-zagging

meanwhile to avoid snags. As a result they lost direction altogether,

and could no longer say which way the river lay. Darkness and water

everywhere! The submerged orange-trees, all alike, formed complicated

lanes over the inundation, a labyrinth in which they grew momentarily

more confused. They were now rowing about quite aimlessly.

Cupido was perspiring freely, under the hard work. The boat was moving

slower and slower because of the branches catching at the keel.

"This is worse than the river," he murmured. "Rafael, you're facing

forward. Can't you make out any light ahead?"

"Not a one!"

The torch would throw some huge clump of leaves into relief for a

moment. When that was gone, the light would be swallowed up into damp,

thick, empty space.

Thus they wandered about and about the flooded countryside. The barber's

strength had given out and he passed the oars over to Rafael, who was

also nearly exhausted.

How long had they been gone? Were they to stay there forever? And their

minds dulled by fatigue and the sense of being lost, they imagined the

night would never end--that the torch would go out and leave the boat a

black coffin, for their corpses to float in eternally.

Rafael, who was now facing astern suddenly noticed a light on his left.

They were going away from it; perhaps that was the house they had been

so painfully searching for.

"It may be," Cupido agreed. "Perhaps we went by without seeing it, and

now we're downstream, toward the sea.... But even if it is not the Blue

House, what of it? The main thing is to find someone there. That's far

better than wandering around here in the dark. Give me the oars, again

Rafael. If that isn't doña Pepita's place, at least we'll find out where

we are."

He pulled the boat around, and gradually they made their way through the

treetops toward the light. They struck several snags, orchard fences,

perhaps, or submerged walls--but the light kept growing brighter.

Finally it had become a large red square across which dark forms were

moving. Over the waters a golden, shimmering wake of light was

streaming.

The torch from the boat brought out the lines of a broad house with a

low roof that seemed to be floating on the water. It was the upper story

of a building that had been swamped by the inundation. The lower story

was under water. The flood, indeed, was getting closer to the upper

rooms. The balconies and windows looked like landings of a pier in an

immense lake.

"Seems to me as if we'd struck the place," the barber said.

A warm, resonant voice, that of a woman, vibrant, but with a deep,

melodious softness, broke the silence.

"Hey, you in the boat there!... Here, here!"

The voice betrayed no fear. It showed not a trace of emotion.

"Didn't I tell you so I ..." the barber exclaimed. "The very place we

were looking for. Doña Leonora!... It's I! It's I!"

A rippling laugh came out into gloom.

"Why, it's Cupido! It's Cupido!... I can tell him by his voice. Auntie,

auntie! Don't cry any more. Don't be afraid; and stop your praying,

please! Here comes the God of Love in a pearl shallop to rescue us!"

Rafael shrank at the sound of that somewhat mocking voice, which seemed

to people the darkness with brilliantly colored butterflies.

Now in the luminous square of a window he could make out the haughty

profile of a woman among other black forms that were going to and fro

past the light inside, in agreeable surprise at the unexpected visit.

The craft drew up to the balcony. The men rose to their feet and were

able to reach an iron railing. The barber, from the prow, was looking

for something strong where he could make the boat fast.

Leonora was leaning over the balustrade while the light from the torch

lit up the golden helmet of her thick, luxuriant hair. She was trying to

identify that other man down there who had bashfully sat down again in

the stern.

"You're a real friend, Cupido!... Thank you, thank you, ever and ever

so much. This is one of the favors we never forget.... But who has come

along with you?..."

The barber was already fastening the boat to the iron railing.

"It's don Rafael Brull," he answered slowly. "A gentleman you have met

already, I believe. You must thank him for this visit. The boat is his,

and it was he who got me out on this adventure."

"Oh, thank you, Señor Brull," said Leonora, greeting the man with the

wave of a hand that flashed blue and red from the rings on its fingers.

"I must repeat what I said to our friend Cupido. Come right in, and I

hope you'll excuse my introducing you through a second-story window."

Rafael had jumped to his feet and was answering her greeting with an

awkward bow, clasping the iron railing in order not to fall. Cupido

jumped into the house and was followed by the young man, who took pains

to make the climb gracefully and sprightly.

He was not sure how well he succeeded. That had been too much excitement

for a single night: first the wild trip through the gorges near the

city; then those hours of desperate aimless rowing over the winding

lanes of the flooded countryside; and now, all at once, a solid floor

under his feet, a roof over his head, warmth, and the society of that

madly beautiful woman, who seemed to intoxicate him with her perfume,

and whose eyes he did not dare meet with his own for fear of fainting

from embarrassment.

"Come right in, _caballero_," she said to him. "You surely need

something after this escapade of yours. You are sopping wet, both of

you.... Poor boys! Just look at them!... Beppa!... Auntie! But do come

in, sir!"

And she fairly pushed Rafael forward with a sort of maternal

authoritativeness, much as a kindly woman might take her child in hand

after he has done some naughty prank of which she is secretly proud.

The rooms were in disorder. Clothes everywhere and heaps of rustic

furniture that contrasted with the other pieces arranged along the

walls! The household belongings of the gardener had been brought

upstairs as soon as the flood started. An old farmer, his wife--who was

beside herself with fear--and several children, who were slinking in the

corners, had taken refuge in the upper story with the ladies, as soon as

the water began seeping into their humble home.

Rafael entered the dining-room, and there sat doña Pepita, poor old

woman, heaped in an armchair, the wrinkles of her features moistened

with tears and her two hands clutching a rosary. Cupido was trying

vainly to cheer her with jokes about the inundation.

"Look, auntie! This gentleman is the son of your friend, doña Bernarda.

He came over here in a boat to help us out. It was very nice of him,

wasn't it?"

The old woman seemed quite to have lost her mind from terror. She looked

vacantly at the new arrivals, as if they had been there all their lives.

At last she seemed to realize what they were saying.

"Why, it's Rafael!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Rafaelito.... And you

came to see us in such weather! Suppose you get drowned? What will your

mother say?... Lord, how crazy of you! Lord!"

But it was not madness, and even if it were, it was very sweet of him!

That, at least, was what Rafael seemed to read in those clear, luminous

eyes of the golden sparkles that caressed him with their velvety touch

every time he dared to look at them. Leonora was staring at him:

studying him in the lamplight, as if trying to understand the difference

between the man in front of her and the boy she had met on her walk to

the Hermitage.

Doña Pepa's spirits rallied now that men were in the house; and with a

supreme effort of will, the old lady decided to leave her armchair for a

look at the flood, which had stopped rising, if, indeed, it were not

actually receding.

"How much water, oh Lord our God!... How many terrible things we'll

learn of tomorrow! This must be a punishment from Heaven ... a warning

to us to think of our many sins."

Leonora meanwhile was bustling busily about, hurrying the refreshments.

Those gentlemen couldn't be left like that--she kept cautioning to her

maid and the peasant woman. Just imagine, with their clothes wet

through! How tired they must be after that all night struggle! Poor

fellows! It was enough just to look at them! And she set biscuits on the

table, cakes, a bottle of rum--everything, including a box of Russian

cigarettes with gilded tips--to the shocked surprise of the gardener's

wife.

"Let them come here, auntie," she said to the old lady. "Don't make them

talk any more now.... They need to eat and drink a little, and get

warm.... I'm sorry I have so little to offer you. What in the world can

I get for them? Let's see! Let's see!"

And while the two men were being forced, by that somewhat despotic

attentiveness, to take seats at the table, Leonora and her maid went

into the adjoining room, where keys began to rattle and tops of chests

to rise and fall.

Rafael, in his deep emotion, could scarcely manage a few drops of rum;

but the barber chewed away for all he was worth, downing glass after

glass of liquor, and talking on and on through a mouth crammed with food

while his face grew redder and redder.

When Leonora reappeared, her maid was following her with a great bundle

of clothes in her arms.

"You understand, of course, we haven't a stitch of men's clothes in the

house. But in war-time we get along as best we can, eh? We're in what

you might call a state of siege here."

Rafael noted the dimples that a charming smile traced in those wonderful

cheeks! And what perfect teeth--jewels in a casket of red velvet!

"Now, Cupido; off with those wet things of yours; you're not going to

catch pneumonia on my account, and thus deprive the city of its one

bright spot. Here's something to put on while we are drying your

clothes."

And she offered the barber a magnificent gown of blue velvet, with

veritable cascades of lace at the breast and on the sleeves.

Cupido nearly fell off his chair.... Was he going to dress in top style

for once in his life? And with those side-whiskers?... How the people in

Alcira would howl if they could only see him now! And entering at once

into the fun of the situation, he hastened into the next room to don his

gown.

"For you," Leonora said to Rafael with a motherly smile, "I could find

only this fur cloak. Come, now, take off that jacket of yours; it's

dripping wet."

With a blush, the young man refused. No, he was all right! Nothing would

happen to him! He had been wetter than that many times.

Leonora without losing her smile, seemed to grow impatient. No one in

that house ever talked back to her.

"Come, Rafael, don't be so silly. We'll have to treat you like a child."

And taking him by a sleeve, as if he were a refractory baby, she began

to pull at his jacket.

The young man, in his confusion, was hardly aware of what was taking

place. He seemed to be traveling along on an endless horizon, at greater

speed than he had been swept down the river just before. She had called

him by his first name; he was a pampered guest in a house he had for

months been trying in vain to enter, and she, Leonora, was calling him

"child" and treating him like a child, as if they had been friends all

their lives. What sort of woman was this? Was he not lost in some

strange world? The women of the city--the girls he met at the parties at

his home, seemed to be creatures of another race, living far, ever so

far, away, at the other end of the earth, cut off from him forever by

that immense sheet of water.

"Come, Mr. Obstinate, or we'll have to undress you like a doll."

She was bending over him; he could feel her breath upon his cheeks, and

the touch of her delicate, agile hands; and a sense of delicious

intoxication swept over him.

The fur coat was drawn snugly about his shoulders. It was a rare

garment; a cloak of blue fox as soft as silk, thick, yet light as the

plumes of some fantastic bird. Though Rafael passed for a tall man, its

edges touched the floor. The young man realized that thousands of francs

had suddenly been thrown over his back, and tremblingly he gathered the

bottom up, lest he should step upon it.

Leonora laughed at his embarrassment.

"Don't be afraid; no matter if you do tread on it. One would think you

were wearing a sacred veil from the respect you show that coat. It isn't

worth much. I use it only to travel in. A grandduke gave it to me in

Saint Petersburg."

And to show more clearly how little she prized the princely gift, she

wrapped it closer around the boy, patting at his shoulders to fit it

more tightly to him.

Slowly they walked back into the front room. Meanwhile, the appearance

of the barber, dressed in his luxuriant gown, was greeted with shouts of

laughter in the dining-room. Cupido was taking full advantage of the

occasion. The train in one hand and stroking his side-whiskers with the

other, he was writhing about like a prima donna in her big scene and

singing in a falsetto soprano voice. The peasant family laughed like

mad, forgetting the disaster that had overtaken their home; Beppa opened

her eyes wide, surprised at the elegant figure of the man, and the grace

with which he pronounced the Italian verses. Even poor doña Pepa hitched

around in her armchair and applauded. The barber, according to her, was

the most charming devil in the world.

Rafael was standing on the balcony, at Leonora's side, his gaze lost in

the darkness, his spirit lulled by the music of her sweet voice, his

body snug and comfortable in that elegant garment which seemed to have

retained something of the warmth and perfume of her shoulders. With

marks of very real interest, she was questioning him about the desperate

trip down the river.

Rafael answered her inquiries with bated breath.

"What you have done," the prima donna was saying, "deserves my deep,

deep gratitude! It is a chivalrous act worthy of ancient times.

Lohengrin, arriving in his little boat to save Elsa! Only the swan is

lacking ...unless you want to call Cupido a swan...."

"And suppose you had been carried off--drowned!..." the youth exclaimed

in justification of his rashness.

"Drowned!...I must confess that at first I was somewhat afraid. Not so

much of dying, for I'm somewhat tired of life--as you will realize after

you've known me a little longer. But a death like that, suffocated in

that mud, that filthy, dirty water that smells so bad, doesn't at all

appeal to me. If it were some green, transparent Swiss lake!... I want

beauty even in death; I'm concerned with the 'final posture,' like the

Romans, and I was afraid of perishing here like a rat in a sewer.... And

nevertheless, I couldn't help laughing at my aunt and our poor servants

to see the fright they were in!... Now the water is no longer rising,

and the house is strong. Our only trouble is that we're cut off, and

I'm waiting for daylight to come so that we can see where we are. The

sight of all this country changed into a lake must be very beautiful,

isn't it, Rafael?"

"You've probably seen far more interesting things," the young man

replied.

"I don't deny that; but I'm always most impressed by the sensation of

the moment."

And she fell silent, showing by her sudden seriousness the vexation that

his distant allusion to her past had caused.

For some moments neither of them spoke; and it was Leonora who finally

broke the silence.

"The truth is, if the water had gone on rising, we would have owed our

lives to you.... Let's see, now, frankly: why did you come? What kind

inspiration made you think of me. You hardly know me!"

Rafael blushed with embarrassment, and trembled from head to foot, as if

she had asked him for a mortal confession. He was on the point of

uttering the great truth, baring in one great explosion all his thoughts

and dreams and dreads of past days. But he restrained himself and

grasped wildly for an answer.

"My enthusiasm for the artist," he replied timidly. "I admire your

talent very much."

Leonora burst into a noisy laugh.

"But you don't know me! You've never heard me sing!... What do you know

about my "talent," as they call it? If it weren't for that chatterbox of

a Cupido, Alcira would never dream that I am a singer and that I'm

somewhat well-known--except in my own country."

Rafael was crushed by the reply; he did not dare protest.

"Come, Rafael," the woman continued affectionately, "don't be a child

and try to pass off the fibs boys use to deceive mama with. I know why

you came here. Do you imagine you haven't been seen from this very

balcony hovering about here every afternoon, lurking in the road like a

spy? You are discovered, sir."

The shy Rafael thought the balcony was collapsing underneath his feet.

He shivered in abject terror, drew the fur cloak tighter around him,

without knowing what he was about, and shook his head in energetic

denial.

"So it's not true, you fraud?" she said, with comic indignation. "You

deny that since we met up at the Hermitage you have been taking all your

walks in this neighborhood? _Dios mío_! What a monster of falsehood have

we here? And how brazenly he lies."

And Rafael, vanquished by her frank merriment, had finally to smile,

confessing his crime with a loud laugh.

"You're probably surprised at what I do and say," continued Leonora

drawing closer to him, leaning a shoulder against his with unaffected

carelessness, as if she were with a girl friend. "I'm not like most

women. A fine thing it would be for me, with the life I lead, to play

the hypocrite!... My poor aunt thinks I'm crazy because I say just what

I feel; in my time I've been much liked and much disliked on account of

the mania I have for not concealing anything.... Do you want me to tell

you the real truth?... Very well; you've come here because you love me,

or, at least, because you think you love me: a failing all boys of your

age have, as soon as they find a woman different from the others they

know."

Rafael bowed his head and said nothing; he did not dare look up. He felt

the gaze of those green eyes upon the back of his head and they seemed

to reach right into his soul.

"Let's see your face. Raise that head of yours a little. Why don't you

say it isn't so, as you did before? Am I right or not?"

"And supposing you were right?..." Rafael ventured to murmur, finding

himself thus suddenly discovered.

"Since I know I am, I thought it best to provoke this explanation, so as

to avoid any misunderstandings. After what has happened to-night, I want

to have you for a friend; friend you understand, and nothing more; a

comradeship based on gratitude. We ought to know in advance exactly

where we stand. We'll be friends, won't we?... You must feel quite at

home here; and I'm sure I shall find you a very agreeable chum. What

you've done to-night has given you a greater hold on my affection than

you could ever have gained in any ordinary social way; but you're going

to promise me that you won't drift into any of that silly love-making

that has always been the bane of my existence."

"And if I can't help myself?" murmured Rafael.

"'And if I can't help myself'," said Leonora, laughing and mimicking

the voice of the young man and the expression on his face. "'And if I

can't help myself'! That's what they all say! And why can't you help

yourself? How can one take seriously a love for a woman you are now

seeing for the second time? These sudden passions are all inventions of

you men. They're not genuine. You get them out of the novels you read,

or out of the operas we sing. Nonsense that poets write and callow boys

swallow like so many boobies and try to transplant into real life! The

trouble is we singers are in the secret, and laugh at such bosh. Well,

now you know--good friends, and the soft pedal on sentiment and drama,

eh? In that way we'll get along very well and the house will be yours."

Leonora paused and, threatening him playfully with her forefinger,

added:

"Otherwise, you may consider me just as ungrateful and cruel as you

please, but your gallant conduct of to-night won't count. You'll not be

permitted to enter this place again. I want no adorers; I have come here

looking for rest, friendship, peace ... Love! A beautiful, cruel

hoax!..."

She was speaking very earnestly, without moving, her gaze lost on that

immense sheet of water.

Rafael dared to look at her squarely now. He had raised his head and was

studying her as she stood there thinking. Her beautiful face was tinted

with a bluish light, that seemed to surround her with a halo of romance.

Morning was coming on, and the leaden curtains of the sky were rent in

the direction of the sea, allowing a livid light to filter through.

Leonora shivered as if from cold, and snuggled instinctively against

Rafael. With a shake of her head she seemed to rout a troop of painful

thoughts, and stretching out a hand to him she said:

"Which shall it be? Friends, or distant acquaintances? Do you promise to

be good, be a real comrade?"

Rafael eagerly clasped that soft, muscular hand, and felt her rings cut

deliciously into his fingers.

"Very well--friends then!... I'll resign myself, since there's no help

for it."

"In that case you will find what you now believe a sacrifice something

quite tolerable and quite consoling; you don't know me, but I know

myself. Believe me, even should I come to love you--as I never

shall--you would be the loser by it. I am worth much more as a friend

than as a lover. And more than one man in the world has found that out."

"I will be a friend, ready to do much more for you than I've done

to-night. I hope you will come to know me too."

"No promises now! What more can you do for me? The river doesn't flood

every day. You can't expect to be a hero every other moment. No, I'm

satisfied with to-night's exploit. You can't imagine how grateful I am.

It has made a very deep impression on my--friendly--heart.... May I be

quite frank? Well, when I met you there at the Hermitage, I took you for

one of these local _señoritos_ who have such an easy time of it in town,

and so, look upon every woman they meet as their property for the

asking. Afterwards, when I saw you lurking about the house, my scorn

increased. 'Who does that little dandy think he is?' I said to myself.

And how Beppa and I laughed over it! I hadn't even noticed your face

and your figure: I hadn't realized how handsome you were...."

Leonora laughed at the thought of how angry she had been, and Rafael,

overwhelmed by such candor, likewise smiled to conceal his

embarrassment.

"But after what happened to-night I am fond of you ... as people are

fond of friends. I am alone here: the friendship of a good and noble boy

like yourself, capable of sacrifice for a woman whom he hardly knows, is

a very comforting thing to have. Besides, that much doesn't compromise

me. I am a bird of passage, you see; I have alighted here because I'm

tired, ill--I don't just know what's the matter, but deeply broken in

spirit anyhow. I need rest, just plain existence--a plunge into sweet

nothingness, where I can forget everything; and I gratefully accept your

friendship. Later on, when you least expect it, probably, I'll fly away.

The very first morning when I wake up, feel quite myself again--and hear

inside my head the song of the mischievous bird that has advised me to

do so many foolish things in my life--I'll pack up my trunk and take

flight! I'll drop you a line of course; I'll send you newspaper

clippings that speak of me, and you'll see you have a friend who does

not forget you and who sends you greetings from London, Saint

Petersburg, or New York--any one of the corners of this world which many

believe so large yet where I am unable to stir without encountering

things that bore me."

"May that moment be long delayed!" said Rafael. "May it never come!"

"Rash boy!" Leonora exclaimed. "You don't know me. If I were to stay

here very long, we'd finish by quarreling and coming to blows. At bottom

I hate men: I have always been their most terrible enemy."

Behind their backs they heard the rustle of the gown that Cupido was

dragging along behind him with absurd antics. He was coming to the

balcony with doña Pepita to see the sunrise.

Through its dense clouds the sky was beginning to shed a gray, wan

light, under which the vast, watery plain took on the whitish color of

absinthe. Down the stream the debris of the inundation was floating,

sweepings of wretched poverty, uprooted trees, clumps of reeds, thatched

roofs from huts, all dirty, slimy, nauseating. Bits of flotsam and

jetsam became entangled between the orange-trees and formed dams that

little by little grew with the new spoils brought along by the current.

In the distance at the very end of the lake, a number of black points

could be seen in regular rhythmic motion, stirring their legs like

aquatic flies around some roofs barely protruding above the immense

field of water. The rescuers had arrived from Valencia--with whale-boats

of the Fleet, brought overland by rail to the scene of the flood.

The provincial authorities would soon be arriving in Alcira; and the

presence of Rafael was indispensable. Cupido himself, with sudden

gravity, advised him to go and meet those boats.

While the barber was putting on his own clothes, Rafael, with intense

regret, removed his fur cloak. It seemed that in taking it off he was

losing the warmth of that night of sweet intimacy, the contact of that

soft shoulder that had for hours long been leaning against him.

Leonora meanwhile looked at him fixedly.

"We understand each other, don't we?" she asked, slowly. "Friends, with

no hope of anything more than that. If you break the pact, you'll not

enter this place again, not even by the second-story window, as you did

last night."

"Yes, friends and nothing more," Rafael murmured with a tone of sincere

sadness, that seemed to move Leonora.

Her green eyes lighted up: her pupils seemed to glitter with spangles of

gold. She stepped nearer and held out her hand.

"You're a good boy; that's the way I like you: resignation and

obedience. For this time, and in reward for your good sense, we'll make

just one exception. Let's not part thus coldly.... So,--you may kiss

me,--as they do it on the stage--here!"

And she raised her hand up toward his lips. Rafael seized it hungrily

and kissed it over and over again, until Leonora, tearing it away with a

violence that showed extraordinary strength, reprimanded him sharply.

"You rogue!... Up to mischief so soon! What an abuse of confidence?

Good-bye! Cupido is calling you.... Good-bye."

And she pushed him toward the balcony, where the barber was already

holding the boat against the railing.

"Hop in, Rafael," said Cupido. "Better lean on me; the water's going

down and the boat's very low," Rafael jumped into his white craft,

which was now dirty and stained from the red water. The barber took the

oars. They began to move away.

"Good-bye! Good-bye! Many thanks!" cried doña Pepa. The maid and the

whole family of the gardener had come out on the balcony.

Rafael let go the tiller, and turned toward the house. He could see

nothing, however, but that proud beauty, who was waving her handkerchief

to them. He watched her for a long time, and when the crests of the

submerged trees hid the balcony from view, he bowed his head, giving

himself up entirely to the silent pleasure of tasting the sweetness that

he could still feel upon his burning lips.