Punctual as the sun, Don Gaspar made his appearance at four in the
afternoon with a little carriage, to take his future housekeeper back
with him to his house. Being told that Esclavita was on her way there,
he again got into his shabby landau and told the coachman to drive
quickly home. His impatience would not permit him to walk with his lame
foot.
At the last moment Doña Aurora had called Esclavita and put into her
hands, in addition to her wages, a handsome present of money and a pair
of torquoise earrings. “I don’t want her to go away dissatisfied,” she
said to herself. “And, indeed, the poor girl looked greatly altered. I
really believe she had a liking for the boy, which makes my resolution
all the more prudent. I pity her, and I know that it is folly for me to
do so. Where could she find a home like the one I have provided for her?
I am doing her a very great service; that is what sets my mind at rest.
She has a sinecure.”
With all this, Señora de Pardiñas could not repress a certain feeling of
disquietude, of secret pain, of overwhelming pity, which she afterward
interpreted as a presentiment of coming evil. “The idea of my pitying
her,” she said to herself, “when I am certain that I have found her the
best situation a girl of her class could possibly desire.” And Señora de
Pardiñas was firmly convinced of the truth of what she said. Like many
good-hearted people, incapable of hating or injuring any one, who like
to think that they are acting in the interests of others when they are
really prompted by self-interest, she wished to persuade herself that
she had at heart Esclava’s good, and not, primarily, her son’s welfare,
just as this motive might seem to her, and as it really was.
She was somewhat reassured when she heard Fausta joking Esclavita in the
kitchen, humming, “And now I serve a doting old man, and I am the
mistress of the house.”
“Fausta is right,” she thought. “She will be mistress in Señor de
Febrero’s house. If she doesn’t make herself too much so----”
The train for Galicia started at thirty-five minutes past seven, and at
that pleasant twilight hour the platform of the Northern Depot was
filled with a hurried and animated crowd of travelers and their friends
who had come to see them off, the latter envying those who were going to
see beautiful scenery, to breathe the sea air, to enjoy a cool
temperature, and to spend a few months pleasantly in a healthy and
[Illustration: “And now I serve a doting old man, and I am the mistress
of the house.”]
temperate climate. Here were no sad parting scenes. It was not the
good-by of the sailor, the leave-taking of the soldier departing for the
war, the homesick farewell of the emigrant. Those who were going were
joyous and excited; those who remained behind, outwardly gay. Only, at
one end of the train, at the door of a first-class carriage, could be
seen a group of four or five persons, exchanging long and lingering
embraces. It was composed of two men, one of them young, the other
already in the decline of life, with bowed heads but erect forms, and
three ladies, two young, the third a white-haired old lady, who
frequently applied their handkerchiefs to their reddened eyes. Inside
the car was a nurse, holding an infant in her arms. Lain Calvo
approached Doña Aurora and said to her, pointing to the group:
“Do you see the Rojases there? Fanatics to the end, to death. They have
transferred the son again to Marineda on account of that affair with the
Minister, and even if he knew he was going to die of want, he would
travel first-class, through respect for his office. If they transfer him
a third time, he says he will send in his resignation. And they have
paid off Rojas himself already. Haven’t you heard of it? He was put on
the retired list a week ago.”
“What do you tell me?” exclaimed Señora de Pardiñas, with genuine
sorrow. “Heaven help us! Unhappy people! Where will that poor Matilde
Rojas find a man who will be willing to marry her without a penny? I
declare I shall have that family in my thoughts during the whole of the
journey. What a world this is, Don Nicanor!”
Doña Aurora tried to make her way toward the group to shake hands with
the ladies of the Rojas family, but it was not possible, the warning
bell sounded, the engine snorted, and wheelbarrows, laden with baggage
checked for the train, were passing on all sides. Rogelio, who was on
the train, reached out his hand to assist his mother, who ascended the
steps slowly, smiling because a flounce of her dress had caught on one
of them, and the noise made by the starting of the train drowned the
voice of Lain Calvo as he cried:
“Beware of the girls of Vigo, Rogelio! they are tempting morsels, my
boy!”
The train, swaying gently, hurried on its way. Evening closed in with
serene splendor, and Rogelio as he looked out of the window fancied he
could already descry the fresh Galician valleys, the leafy chestnut
trees, the blue waters girdling the most beautiful country in the world.
But he did not perceive Esclavita, who, from the other side of the
platform, followed the train with her eyes until it passed, swift and
majestic, from her sight. When the last black smoke-wreath had
disappeared in the distance, trembling as if with cold, she turned her
steps slowly toward the city, resolved that the sun, which was just
sinking below the horizon, should never again rise for her. Let us leave
the unhappy girl, for, however hard we might try we could never dissuade
her from her purpose. Don Gabriel Pardo, who is fond of generalizing in
a dogmatic way, and who, in support of a favorite theory, will make use
of the most illogical arguments, would tell us, if we asked him to
account for this tragedy, that the mental aberration which leads to
suicide is a natural outcome of the melancholy temperament of the Celtic
race, that great martyr of history; just as if the newspapers did not
every day record similar cases of suicide in every province of Spain.
[Illustration]