A SPANISH BALL
Fortunately I did not know that before me lay a full week of useless
scheming and vain longing. Though we went about visiting and dining as
usual, even two evenings at Colonel Mayron's failed to bring me the
slightest relief from my suspense. Alisanda was kept in such seclusion
that even Dona Dolores could not reach her.
On the other hand, Salcedo called twice at the Vallois mansion and took
with him Medina. This caused me the most intense anxiety. I was sure of
Alisanda's constancy, and yet did not know what pressure their casuistic
minds might bring to bear against her will.
As to this Father Rocus might have enlightened me, had I not feared to
compromise him by a second visit. It would need only the slightest
shadow of a suspicion to put Don Pedro and his senora on their guard
against the padre. Also I relied upon His Reverence to inform me in some
secret manner at the first change in the situation.
Another Sunday roused in me the wild hope of a second meeting with my
lady. But though I fairly haunted the _Parroquia_ throughout the
forenoon, I received no notes and saw nothing of my friends. Even
Father Rocus was absent. A casually spoken question at dinner brought me
the information that he was suffering a slight attack of gout.
Pike, ever eager for the display of my small skill as a physician,
immediately urged upon me to offer my services to the padre. This was
seconded by Walker and the half-dozen guests present with us at table,
for it appeared that Father Rocus was a general favorite in Chihuahua,
from the mighty Salcedo down to the lowliest _leproso_. After much
insistence on the part of the others, I at last agreed to call upon the
padre and prescribe for him.
Our little dinner, though frugal, was a merry one, for our host and the
guests were in high spirits over the prospect of a _baile_, or ball,
that evening. Though this ball was given at the house of a family we had
not previously visited, Walker took Pike and myself as a matter of
course.
When we arrived we found most of the _elite_ of the city already
assembled in the large ballroom. Indeed, the first couple upon whom I
set eyes were Dona Dolores Malgares and His Excellency, Don Nimesio
Salcedo, Commandant-General of the Internal Provinces of the Kingdom of
New Spain, whirling about in a Spanish dance that displayed far more
liveliness than dignity.
We were duly presented to our hostess, and made our compliments; after
which Pike plunged into the whirl with all the zest of his gallant
nature. I drew apart, to overlook the gay scene in search of my lady.
Not that I had much hope of seeing her, but I had learned that almost
anything seemed possible in this land of intrigue.
At once I was challenged from all sides by brilliant-eyed senoras and
senoritas. But even had I wished to take one as partner, I was
unacquainted with the now spirited, now voluptuous measures of this
peculiar Spanish dance. Pike, daring at all times and in all places, was
attempting the step with the aid of a plump and kindly senorita.
I was more than content to keep back and look on, while my ears drank in
the seductive melody of mingled guitar and violin and singing voices
which floated down the ballroom from the stand of the musicians. Both
the oddness and the agreeableness of this music was enhanced when at
certain intervals the guests joined in the singing.
Confusing as was the whirl of the dance, I soon identified all present
who were known to me, the first turn of the dancers bringing me a smile
from my stately friend Malgares and a hostile stare from Lieutenant
Medina. The dread to which the latter had reduced many of his
fellow-officers was evident from the manner in which the young subaltern
who had pressed up beside me shrank away at the first glance of the
aide's baleful little eyes.
Wondering how soon Medina would force a duel upon me, I drifted idly up
the room and back toward the entrance. No more guests had arrived since
ourselves, and I had given over all hope of seeing Alisanda. But as I
approached the Moorish arch of the ballroom doorway I caught a glimpse
of Don Pedro in the anteroom. It took me only a few moments to gain the
doorway. The close group of young officers about Don Pedro convinced me
that my lady was with him. I thrust myself unceremoniously into their
midst. Dona Marguerite sought to interpose, but, with a bow, I slipped
around her, and bent to salute the hand which Alisanda held out to me. I
was relieved to see that, like the rest of the ladies present, she was
dressed in the Spanish national mode, and also that she seemed in good
health and spirits.
"God keep you, _amigo_!" she said in a clear voice.
"_Muchas gracias_, senorita! May I beg the honor of your first dance?"
"It is yours, senor," she responded.
The other men fell away as she took my arm. Don Pedro stepped forward as
though to interpose, but desisted at a sign from Dona Marguerite. I
entered the ballroom with colors flying and the loveliest girl in all
the world upon my arm. For the moment Fortune was with me. The Spanish
dance had reached an end, and the musicians were striking up a waltz.
Nothing could have suited me better. Dancing was one of my few
accomplishments, and it was the very poetry of love and life to circle
about the long room with my darling in my arms, in rhythm to the pulsing
throb of the sweetest and softest of music.
It was no more than human that my bliss should key yet higher with a
tang of triumph as I glided with my lovely partner under the nose of
the scowling Salcedo and past the lowering visage of his Andalusian
aide. It might be that I was to meet my death from one or the other of
them, but for the time at least I was the happiest man beneath heaven. I
was in Paradise.
Before I was forced to relinquish her to Dona Marguerite at the stopping
of the music, I received my dear girl's pledge to give me all the
waltzes of the evening. More she dared not promise for fear of the
interference of her aunt. As may be imagined, it was a severe trial to
see her led out by another partner, even though she accepted Pike
instead of Medina for the voluptuous _fandango_ and though Dona Dolores
contrived to pilot me into the set in which my lady danced the minuet as
partner to His Excellency, Don Nimesio.
Before the close of the _baile_, Medina's persistence and his open
warning off of the other officers won him two dances, strive as my lady
would to avoid him. But even he lacked the assurance to interfere with
Salcedo's marked attentions, and, for the rest, Pike, Malgares, and
myself contrived to foil him in every attempt, with the two exceptions
mentioned. For myself, I had the divine joy of dancing every waltz with
my lady, and it did not lessen my rapture that Medina followed us each
time with a gaze which would have struck me dead had it possessed the
power.
Such bliss could not last. All too soon the ball began to draw to a
close, and when I came to lead out Alisanda for the last waltz, Dona
Marguerite interposed with the statement that they were about to leave.
Making the best of the situation, I claimed and was granted the
privilege of escorting my darling to the coach. Such complaisance on the
part of her duenna astonished me. I could account for it only on the
supposition that Senora Vallois thought to spur on Salcedo's ardor and
jealousy by the sight of a favored suitor.
However that may have been, the last of my successes of the evening
still farther infuriated the truculent Medina. It is not improbable he
would have challenged me that night had not my failure to obtain a word
apart with Alisanda induced me to follow the Vallois coach all the way
across the city.
Watching from the corner of the plaza, I saw the coach roll in between
the wide-flung gates of the Vallois mansion. I waited perhaps half an
hour, then stole silently up the street to my black doorway, across from
her balcony, and began to murmur the song which had twice brought me a
response from her. Almost immediately a light appeared behind the drawn
hangings. I started forward eagerly, only to check myself and step back
into the denser darkness of my lurking place. A hand had parted the
curtains, and between them appeared the frowning face of Don Pedro.
I went home, if not in as black a mood as Medina, at least not disposed
to kindly thoughts toward my enemies.