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Bored with wandering from room to room through the house, sick of his books, with which he would spend hours and hours turning pages without really seeing a word that was printed on them, Rafael had taken refuge in the sitting-room where his mother did her sewing, supervising a complicated piece of embroidery that Remedios was making. The girl's submissive simplicity appealed to Rafael.
"That the soldiers are committing atrocities." "It is a miracle that those Hottentots have not searched the house! I declare that if I see one of the red-trousered gentry enter the house, I shall fall down speechless." "This is a nice condition of things!" said Remedios, exhaling half her soul in a sigh.
He had again lifted the cover, as Remedios turned away, and, lighted match in one hand, was twisting at a spark plug with the other. "Shucks," he cried, withdrawing his head, "that Number One plug wasn't screwed in tightly enough, that's all. I'll bet she'll go now, just the way I tightened her by hand. And if I only had a pair of pliers "
Shortly after the good canon had ended his peroration two tears rolled down his niece's rosy cheeks; before long were heard a few half-suppressed sighs, and gradually, as the swell and tumult of a sea that is beginning to be stormy rise higher and higher and become louder and louder, so the surge of Maria Remedios' grief rose and swelled, until it at last broke forth in a flood of tears.
These fits of range of his niece, who was usually so meek, were as violent as they were rare, and five or six years would sometimes pass without Don Inocencio seeing Remedios transformed into a fury. "I am a mother! I am a mother! and since no one else will look out for my son, I will look out for him myself!" roared the improvised lioness.
They were in earnest, but low-voiced conversation. They did not see him. Jack stifled an exclamation. The man with Remedios was Rollins, his father's trusted assistant. So stunned was Jack at the revelation that he did not strain to overhear what they were saying. In a moment they were beyond earshot. Trembling with rage at this evidence of treachery on the part of Rollins, Jack rose to his feet.
In Orbajosa Maria Remedios passed for a model of virtue and a model niece perhaps she was so in reality. She served with affection all who needed her services; she never gave occasion for gossip or for scandal; she never mixed herself up in intrigues.
And pray, Captain Ortiz, how will the Americans oppose these magnificent soldiers, full of piety and patriotism?" "They have the Alamo, and one hundred and eighty-three men in it." "And four thousand men against them?" "Si. May the Virgin de los Remedios be their help! An urgent appeal for assistance was sent to Fanning at Goliad. Senor Navarre, took it on a horse fleet as the wind.
Why, would that be an offence to God?" "Maria Remedios," said Dona Perfecta haughtily, "don't talk nonsense." "Nonsense! You, with all your wisdom, cannot make your nephew do as you wish. What could be simpler than what I propose? Since there is no justice now to protect us, let us do a great act of justice ourselves. Are there not men in your house who are ready for any thing?
Besides, doña Bernarda invited Remedios to the Brull place frequently, and rarely indeed did Rafael come home of an afternoon without finding that timid maiden there a dull, handsomish sort of girl, dressed up in clothes that did cruel injustice to a peasant beauty rapidly transformed, by her father's good luck, into a young "society" girl. "But, mama," said Rafael, smiling.
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