The Joy of Captain Ribot Part 21

"With your mamma!"

"Who adores you!"

"Who idolizes you!"

Four feminine arms embraced him, and four lips were pressed almost at the same time above his skinned nose.

His eyes wandered about the room at all of us as if he did not know us, and were fixed at last upon his wife; then he groaned frightfully:

"Matilde! Matilde! Matilde!"

Then he hugged her and fell back in an attack of convulsive laughing.

His loud laughter joined to the sobbing of his wife and the wails of Dona Amparo made a terrifying mixture that would have melted the hardest heart. More, by virtue of the contagion that all the world knows lies in this sort of an attack, I felt a shocking desire to laugh also. By hard work I managed to stifle it. I left the room and went down again to the dining-room. The others were not long in following me, leaving Sabas restored and at peace with his wife and his mother. Ten minutes later they came down also. Cristina gave the order to serve the soup, and I observed with some astonishment that Sabas dined with an excellent appet.i.te, and during dinner showed himself as gay and disputatious and smart as ever. His wife devoured him with eyes of pure affection, and devoted herself to waiting upon him.

When we finished, he rose before taking his coffee, lighted a good cigar, and asked his brother-in-law if he would let him take his cab.

"But are you going out?" his wife asked him with surprise and annoyance.

"Yes; I am going to take my coffee at the Siglo. I haven't seen a single one of my friends yet. I shall be back soon."

Matilde tried to keep him, begging that he would not go that night, caressing his hands, with no result except to make him cross. Observing, however, the bad effect this had upon us, he changed his tone and embraced her, saying in endearing accents:

"Goosie! Aren't you going to let me go and celebrate our reconciliation?"

With this the infatuated wife was satisfied and content, brushed the dust from his shoes, and went with him to the cab door.

We remained in the dining-room some time. Emilio was the first to start to bed, saying that he felt sleepy. I thought that his hemorrhage had affected him more than he had acknowledged. Matilde went up to put her children to bed. We remained chatting, Isabelita and I in one corner, Cristina and Castell in another, while Dona Amparo embroidered by the light of a lamp between.

This state of things impressed me uncomfortably. We seemed like two pairs engaged in courtship, watched over by the mamma; and this idea, so far as it concerned Cristina and Castell, could not but fill me with great repugnance. Such was my faith in that woman that I scarcely believed what I saw. I was absent and melancholy, and with difficulty kept up the conversation with my intended.

My intended! The winds were driving me upon a coast where I didn't know whether I was going to be shipwrecked or find a snug harbor. I confessed to myself with alarm that since my dreadful convictions about Cristina, my heart was less inclined than ever to admit another woman.

When Matilde came down after getting her children to bed, in order to get out of this scarcely decent situation, and also to rid myself a little of the sadness that overpowered me, I proposed that we take a turn in the park. The proposition met with favor, and Cristina was the first to accept it, rising from the sofa where she had been sitting. But Castell said, with his usual decision:

"I don't feel equal to it. It is much too damp in the park at this hour."

Cristina turned and sat down again beside him.

"We are not so much in fear of dying, are we, Matilde?" I said smiling.

She and Isabelita followed me. Dona Amparo stayed with her daughter and Castell. We went to the end of the garden, and from there entered the open s.p.a.ces of the park, where the balmy air did me a great deal of good, for my brow had been burning and my heart filled with mournful presentiments.

CHAPTER XIII.

The park, wrapped in the shades of night, seemed like a forest; it was more grand and mysterious. The magnolias, cypresses, and araucarias that half covered the ground might be imagined cavaliers wrapped in their cloaks, silent and threatening. The foliage did not stir; the gravelled roads scarcely showed their whiteness; the footpaths were submissive to the darkness. We followed the first of these in a sort of vague disquiet, exchanging few words. The same emotion seemed to seal our lips and oppress our hearts. When I recall those first moments of that night and the overwhelming melancholy that oppressed me, I cannot help being a bit superst.i.tious.

But if the darkness inspired sadness and a vague dread, the fragrances, some sweet, some keen, that filtered through the silent leaves, invited us to go farther. We inhaled, as we went on our way, a thousand delicious odors, from the scarcely perceptible breath of violets to the strong, dominating perfume of the magnolia.

On arriving at a certain place, a sort of little opening where the languorous, sensuous perfume of heliotrope dominated all others, Matilde made a gesture of pleasure. It was her favorite fragrance. She would not let us go any farther, and made us sit down on a rustic bench so that she could get her fill of it, as she said. But, unluckily, that perfume, subtle with Oriental love, immediately recalled to her memory the poetical image of her spouse. And, fascinated by this recollection, she entertained us for some time by relating the most interesting particulars of his domestic life--at what hour this extraordinary being got up in the morning, how soon afterwards a gla.s.s of water with lemon in it was introduced into his precious organism, how many slices of toast he took with his coffee, how many pipes he smoked, how he walked about the house, and even how, every Thursday, he took magnesia to cleanse and purify this splendid work of nature.

As if in sympathy with her enthusiasm, and desiring to give testimony to the admiration that such a rare and beautiful subject inspired, a gentle light suddenly shone over the place. We turned our eyes towards the sea, and saw the moon coming up above its quiet waves. The waters smiled; in the park the silver, smooth leaves of the magnolias, the silky-whiteness of the roses, the tops of the cannas and laurels glittered in luminous points of light. The darkness fled away into the depths of the thickets, forming dense, impenetrable ma.s.ses. Soon the moonlight began penetrating these also, as the moon rose higher in the azure vault, scattering golden rays.

Matilde, who was reminded by everything in heaven or on earth of Sabas, thought that it was now time to get his bed ready for him, and asked us to come into the house. Isabelita did not wish to go so soon. The night was delicious; she would stay alone with me. I did not wish to say anything about the unusualness of this, to disturb her angelic innocence. We sat for some moments on the same bench, chatting about indifferent matters.

I was not long, however, in bringing the conversation to our projected marriage. It interested her immensely. She must have six dozen of chemises, and four of petticoats, and three of this, and eight of that.

I could not help her much in all that. I was absent-minded or critical, and, without knowing why, responded but poorly and with little tact when she consulted me. But my attention was held when the child began to talk about our house, and the expenses it would occasion, and the expenditures we must count upon to furnish it. I was surprised at the ease and capacity wherewith she discussed economic subjects. She not only understood what concerned her father's business, but also exchange, discounting bills, stocks, and so on. For some time I listened with amazement while she discussed the probable rise of certain public stocks that her father had recently bought, of the transferring of others that he held, of the sudden fall of the stock of the tobacco company, of treasury bonds, and a thousand other things of whose existence I scarcely knew. This financial erudition did not impress me agreeably. I understood the necessity of a woman's having some knowledge of affairs in order to rule over her house properly; but so much mercantile knowledge shocked my temperament, which was not at all practical, and, more yet, the idea it gave me of this young creature. It seemed impossible that such old words could issue from such youthful lips.

But this was not the only thing. Going on from one thing to another with strange smartness, the child reached the point of inquiring the amount of my capital. I did not try to hide it from her. At the first hint I told her, with complete clearness, one house, a little land, a few bonds of the company in whose service I had been--about sixty thousand dollars all reckoned.

Isabelita kept silence a moment.

"It isn't much," she said at last, with a certain antagonistic inflection I did not know in her.

And, after another pause, she added, with a forced smile:

"My father thought that you were much richer."

"But you perceive how mistaken he was," I said, with a smile still more forced. "We are almost always deceived about others, sometimes thinking them richer than they are, sometimes more n.o.ble."

This was all that I said. I felt an enormous, overwhelming repugnance, almost a nausea. In one instant I had made up my mind. I would not marry this self-hawker, with her angelic profile, for all the treasures of earth.

And, curiously, as soon as I made this resolution, I felt at peace and almost happy. I felt as if I had thrown off a great load. So, to the surprise of Retamoso's daughter, who had remained thoughtful, and a little put out by my words, I began to show myself gay and never more merry.

But the evening was advancing, and as I was not interested in conversation, and wished to be alone and think over the proper method for breaking off with her, I proposed that we should return to the house. As we got up we heard a murmur as of people coming; we did not know any other way except to sit down again. Castell and Cristina sailed into the little open s.p.a.ce. From the darkness of the place where we were sitting, we could see them plainly, for the moonlight completely enveloped them. I perceived at once that the conversation was a serious one. He came along smiling, bending his head insinuatingly towards her, to talk close to her ear. Cristina was pale, with frowning brow, her gaze hard, and fixed on s.p.a.ce. I wished to get up at once, but Isabelita held me back. They pa.s.sed before us without seeing us. As for him, we could not hear him, because he spoke very low; but some of her words reached our ears distinctly.

"There is nothing more to be said about that."

This sentence, uttered with unusual energy, impressed us forcibly.

Isabelita grasped my wrist with a nervous hand and stood up to follow them. And, truly, if curiosity excited her, my own was no less; but as I knew where that would lead me, and as it seemed to me indecorous to surprise such a secret, I tried to stop her. It was useless. The girl pulled away from me, and was off after them. I followed also, determining to do something to attract their attention in some way. But by this time I could no longer see Isabelita. I went forward in the darkness, which was there very dense, guided only by the sound of their voices. In a few moments I realized that Castell and Cristina had stopped. I still advanced and saw that they were in a glorieta, or arbor, formed by four great laurels, planted a little distance apart, whose branches interlaced. I approached with a cautious step. Isabelita was outside the arbor with her ear glued to the branches. When I came up to her, she flashed one hand over my mouth and the other arm about my neck so hard that she hurt me. I was stupefied by such violence, whose reason I could not imagine. Weakly, and because I thought it would save Cristina's modesty, I remained pa.s.sive and quiet.

"Perhaps you consider," said Castell, "my patience of several years, my sufferings, the silent, constant service I have given you, a mere caprice. Perhaps you suppose that my self-love is concerned in this rather than a deep, irresistible pa.s.sion. Have I not an equal right to suppose that the disdain with which you have so many times humiliated me is the work of pride and of obstinacy more than of virtue?"

"You may suppose whatever you like. The way you judge me--"

"I know you," interrupted Castell. "n.o.body could be more charming. I have never found a woman whose beauty and whose character appeared to me more interesting and worthy of admiration."

I heard a slight sniff of disdain and then these words:

"I would prefer you to admire me less, and let me live more at peace.

But it is not about this that I wish to talk at present. I consented to come out with you, and find myself here at this improper hour, at the risk of my husband's honor, which is dearer to me than life, because I see a way to solve the problem of my life. Rich or poor, happy or disgraced, I am resolved to live in honor and peace."

n.o.body can imagine exactly what went on within me at that moment. The horrible suspicions, almost certainties, which had smeared the image of my idol, fled like black spectres. I saw her again in all her purity, with an aureole of virtue that was her glory and charm. A celestial happiness descended into my heart. All my body trembled, seized with an irresistible emotion.

"You might search everywhere, you might look the wide world over, for one whose happiness concerns me more than your own, and you could not find one," said Castell.

"That is very little to say," replied Cristina with a sarcastic accent.