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Updated: June 22, 2025
I looked down at him. If I spoke truth, Melinza's blade would soon cut short his hearing of it. A wild laugh rose in my throat; I could not hold it back, and it rang out, merrily mad, in the silent room. "Señores," I said, "Señores, I love a brave man, not a coward!" and that was truth, though none in that room read me aright, save Doña Orosia.
As I caught sight of these emblems of a Christian faith I bethought me of the bloody sacrifices that had been offered to a pitiful God in the name of orthodoxy, and I wondered whether heretics like us would not be safer out in the wild woods and the driving storm aye, even at the mercy of infidel barbarians; but suddenly I remembered the solid silver service which was to be the gift of Doña Orosia to this little new mission, and I took courage.
"I would sooner kill you with my own hands than give you up to him," said Doña Orosia, with a cold smile. "Then what do you mean, señora?" "I mean, Margarita mia, that you should feign a tenderness for him and let him think that it is I who would keep two loving souls apart." "What! when I have shown him naught but dislike in all these months?
Then she threw a mantle over my head, wrapped herself in another, and led me out into the garden. It was a moonless night, and a haze of cloud obscured the stars. We passed silently under the vine-covered arbour, across the garden, to the gateway. Into the heavy lock Doña Orosia slipped a great key; it turned easily, the door swung open, and we stepped out.
Arrived at my chamber Doña Orosia opened the door and thrust me in, bidding me draw the bolt securely. I was left alone with my thoughts. Such thoughts as they are! I cannot weep; my eyes are hot and dry. There is no grief like unto this.
Something told me he had come hither at her bidding, and I glanced at her for confirmation; but Doña Orosia leaned with one elbow on the table, her chin upon her white hand, the other rounded arm outstretched with an almond in the slim fingers for the delectation of the green parrot on his perch beside her.
I could not answer, perhaps I had been a fool to speak. I dropped my face in my hands, silently. Doña Orosia leaned forward and took me by the wrists. "Look at me!" she said. Timidly I raised my eyes, and she studied my countenance for a long minute. "'Tis absurd," she said then, and pushed me aside. "'Tis impossible! And yet a new face, a new face and passably pretty.
The air eluded me for some while; but my fingers, straying over the strings, fell suddenly into the plaintive melody; with it, the words too came back to me. "A melancholy air, yet with somewhat of a pleasing sadness in its minor cadences," commented Doña Orosia when I had ceased. "Translate me the words, an your Spanish is sufficient."
As my glance returned from the doorway it met that of Doña Orosia, and in hers there was a passing flash of triumph. Soon after, she rose, and together we withdrew. I felt her hand upon my arm tighten convulsively; but I walked on with the same sense of unreality that had oppressed me all the day.
She had risen, and stood with one hand holding back her skirts, her full, red upper lip slightly drawn, and her delicate nostrils dilated, as though the very mention of the loathed disease filled her with disgust. "A wretched half-breed boy, some thieving member of the padre's flock," exclaimed the Governor impatiently. "Set fire to the hut, I say!" But Doña Orosia interrupted once again.
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