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The Senora had welcomed Father Salvierderra at the foot of the veranda steps, and had immediately closeted herself with him. She had much to say to him, much about which she wished his help and counsel, and much which she wished to learn from him as to affairs in the Church and in the country generally.
The coming of any guest into the house was a signal for unwonted activities there, even the coming of Father Salvierderra, who never knew whether the soup had force-meat balls in it or not, old Marda said; and that was to her the last extreme of indifference to good things of the flesh.
As he gazed, his senses seemed leaving him, and unconsciously he spoke aloud; "Christ! What shall I do!" THE room in which Father Salvierderra always slept when at the Senora Moreno's house was the southeast corner room. It had a window to the south and one to the east. When the first glow of dawn came in the sky, this eastern window was lit up as by a fire.
It was stupid of them to stay and be like beasts, and not know anything; but do you not think they had the right?" "It is the command to preach the gospel to every creature," replied the pious Ramona. "That is what Father Salvierderra said was the reason the Franciscans came here. I think they ought to have made the Indians listen. But that was dreadful about the ears, Alessandro.
The real front is towards the garden, and here at the end of the gallery is the elevated room where Father Salvierderra slept when he passed a night at the hacienda, a pretty room which has a case of Spanish books, mostly religious and legal, and some quaint and cheap holy pictures.
"Ramona," she said firmly, "while you are a little girl, you cannot understand any of these things. When you are a woman, I will tell you all that I know myself about your father and your mother. It is very little. Your father died when you were only two years old. All that you have to do is to be a good child, and say your prayers, and when Father Salvierderra comes he will be pleased with you.
"And he is not really to blame," thought Ramona, "if a girl follows him about and makes free with him. For she never in this world would have gone to wash in the dark, as he must have known, if he were not a fool. He is not the sort of person, it seems to me, to be fooling with maids. He seems as full of grave thought as Father Salvierderra.
Surprise predominated. Felipe misunderstood the surprise. "I knew you would be surprised," he said. "I told my mother that you would not think of it; that you had stayed now only because we were in trouble." Alessandro bowed his head gratefully. This recognition from Felipe gave him pleasure. "Yes, Senor," he said, "that was it. I told Father Salvierderra it was not for the wages.
This somewhat enigmatical statement as to the difficulty of knowing the Senora's wishes was like Greek to Alessandro's mind. "I do not understand, Senorita," he said. "What do you mean by 'afterward'?" "I mean," replied Ramona, "that the Senora never says she wishes anything; she says she leaves everything to Felipe to decide, or to Father Salvierderra.
The name smote the Senora like a spear-thrust, There could be no stronger evidence of the abnormal excitement under which she had been laboring for the last twenty-four hours, than the fact that she had not once, during all this time, thought to ask herself what Father Salvierderra would say, or might command, in this crisis.
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