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Bringing her to Ramona's side, he laid her feverish hand in Ramona's, and said: "Majella, I have told her all. She cannot speak a word of Spanish, but she is very glad, she says, that you have come with me, and she will stay close by your side till I come back." Ramona's tender heart ached with desire to comfort the girl; but all she could do was to press her hand in silence.
Yet the sight of these silent walls, only a few feet high, was a sore one to Father Gaspara, a daily cross, which he did not find grow lighter as he paced up and down his veranda, year in and year out, in the balmy winter and cool summer of that magic climate. "Majella, the chapel is lighted; but that is good!" exclaimed Alessandro, as they rode into the silent plaza.
"Never!" exclaimed Alessandro, with horror in his tone. "Never, Majella! How dared you?" "I dare anything now!" said Ramona. "I have been thinking to do it for some days, and to tell her she could not have him any more till she gave me back the baby well and strong; but I knew I could not have courage to sit and look at her all lonely without him in her arms, so I did not do it.
The entry of Alessandro's marriage was blotted. The Father had been in haste that night. "Alessandro Assis. Majella Fa " No more could be read. The name meant nothing to Father Gaspara. "Clearly an Indian name," he said to himself; "yet she seemed superior in every way. I wonder where she got it." The winter wore along quietly in San Pasquale.
"It would have been much more danger, Majella," he said, "and I had no knowledge of work I could do there." His look made Ramona remorseful at once. How cruel to lay one feather-weight of additional burden on this loving man. "Oh, this is much better, really," she said. "I did not mean what I said. It is only because I have always loved Father Salvierderra so.
Do not look back!" he cried, as he saw Ramona, with streaming eyes, gazing back towards San Pasquale. "Do not look back! It is gone! Pray to the saints now, Majella! Pray! Pray!" THE Senora Moreno was dying. It had been a sad two years in the Moreno house. After the first excitement following Ramona's departure had died away, things had settled down in a surface similitude of their old routine.
"I think so too," he said; "but, oh, I am afraid for you; and will not you be afraid?" "Yes," she replied, "I am afraid. But it is not so dangerous as the other." "If anything were to happen to me, and I could not come back to you, Majella, if you give Baba his reins he will take you safe home, he and Capitan." Ramona shrieked aloud. She had not thought of this possibility.
And when he went away, to leave the country, when his heart was broken, and the Mission all ruined, he had to fly by night, Majella, just as you and I have done; for if the Indians had known it, they would have risen up to keep him.
"What are a handful of sheep to her!" he thought. Breathless, panting, Alessandro burst into Ramona's presence. "Majella! my Majella! There are cattle and sheep," he cried. "The saints be praised! We are not like the beggars, as I said." "I told you that God would give us food, dear Alessandro," replied Ramona, gently. "You do not wonder! You do not ask!" he cried, astonished at her calm.
"Ay, just there he sailed, as that ship goes now," he exclaimed, as a white-sailed schooner sailed swiftly by, going out to sea. "But the ship lay at first inside the bar; you cannot see the inside harbor from here. It is the most beautiful water I have ever seen, Majella. The two high lands come out like two arms to hold it and keep it safe, as if they loved it."
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