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Can you not speak their dialect even a little?" he added in Spanish to Manuela. She shook her head, but said quietly "Me will nurse." "That's very kind of you, and it will really be a charity, for the child is seriously ill. She is a strangely attractive little thing," he continued, bending over her couch and stroking her hair gently. "I feel quite as if I had known her a long time.
I say to her, "Do thus, and thus! give these orders to Pasquale; tell him that it imports of your life and mine, saying nothing of his own; that if I am not obeyed, the evil eye will be the least of his punishments, and death without the sacraments the end for him." Manuela hears; she trembles; she flies to execute my commands. Then, Marguerite then, what does the daughter of Cuba do?
The negro opened his eyes and mouth so awfully at the mere idea of such a rising that his companions were fain to seek relief in laughter. Even the grave Manuela gave way to unrestrained merriment, for if she failed to thoroughly understand Quashy's meaning, she quite understood his face. That night they found welcome shelter in a small farm.
Nor was Manuela adverse to this new arrangement which must eventually deprive her of all authority in the household; a position she had guarded so jealously through the years and which had raised her in the estimation of the community.
He and Delmonte himself both assured her that, if they were handling it, they should simply squirt carbolic acid into it, and tie it up with anything that came handy; but Rita shook her head gravely, and three of her delicate handkerchiefs, brought from the long-suffering bag which Manuela had somehow managed to save from the ruins, torn into strips, made a very sufficient bandage.
Lawrence and his new acquaintance seated themselves on the ground, and Manuela used her saddle as a chair. Towards the end of their meal the two men became more communicative, and when Pedro had lighted a cigarette, they began to talk of their immediate future. "You don't smoke?" remarked Pedro in passing. "No," replied Lawrence. "Not like the most of your countrymen," said the other.
When it became known that Lawrence was a doctor, there was a visible increase of hope in the expression and bearing of the poor wounded people. And the youth soon justified their trustful feelings, for, with Pedro and Quashy as assistant-surgeons, and Manuela as head-nurse, he went about setting broken bones, bandaging limbs, sewing up wounds, and otherwise relieving the sufferers around him.
"We have made a good beginning, Manuela," she said. "We have saved three lives, I truly believe. Now we shall go on with new courage. I feel, Manuela, that I can do anything meet any foe. Ah! what is that? a snake! a horrible green snake! I faint, Manuela! I die no, I don't. See, I am the sister of a soldier, and I am not going to die any more, when I see these fearful creatures.
Since the death of his wife and sister, the latter taking place shortly after the return of his niece, Manuela, the latter had been the head of the household and its retinue of servants. The Señorita had been told the agreement between Major Starland and Miss Rowland, which was that during their visit to this part of the world, they were to be known as brother and sister.
'Minds me ob de ole times!" "Get along with you," said Lawrence, with a laugh, as the warm-hearted black left the hotel. Thus these two parted. Little did they imagine what singular experiences they should encounter before meeting again. Soon after Quashy's departure Lawrence went to the door of Manuela's room, and, tapping gently, said "Dinner is ready, Manuela."
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