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Updated: June 8, 2025
The evening before the wedding Prudencia covered her demure self with black gown and reboso, and, accompanied by Chonita, went to the Mission to make her last maiden confession. Chonita did not go with her into the church, but paced up and down the long corridor of the wing, gazing absently upon the deep wild valley and peaceful ocean, seeing little beyond the images in her own mind.
Prudencia's little bosom swelled with pride at the discomfiture of the haughty beauty who had rarely remembered to notice her. Prudencia was not poor; she owned a goodly rancho; but it was an hacienda to the state of a Menendez. "Thou wilt be one of my bridesmaids, no, Doña Valencia?" she asked. "That will be the proud day of my life," said Valencia, graciously.
But if strong intellectual juices sank into that sweet, pliant kernel, developing it into the perfected form of woman, establishing the current between the brain and the passions, finishing the work, or leaving it half completed, as Circumstance vouchsafed? what then? "Ay, Señor!" exclaimed Prudencia, as two people, mounted on horses glistening with silver, galloped into the court-yard.
"It sounds very delightful," said the young man, with a glance at the charming girl who would stand with her head turned away. "But how about the Gringos, Donna Prudencia? Supposing some of them should come along to-morrow!" "They won't come to-morrow!" said Marm Prudence, significantly. "No? you have assurance of that? and why may they not come to-morrow?"
"My son," Don Guillermo was saying, "God be thanked that thou didst not merit thy imprisonment. I should have beaten thee with my cane and locked thee in thy room for a month hadst thou disgraced my name. But, as it happily is, thou must have compensation for unjust treatment. Prudencia, give me thy hand."
I cannot say why I put on this black gown to-day. I make no haste to feel as I did when I wore it in that dream, the desolation, the endlessness; but I did." "That was a strange dream, my Chonita," said Prudencia, threading her needle. "Thou must have eaten too many dulces for supper: didst thou?" "No," said Chonita, shortly, "I did not."
Prudencia did not know whether to cry or not. Doña Trinidad, who never thought of replying to her daughter, said, "Chonita mia, Liseta and Tomaso wish to marry, and thy father will give them the little house by the creek." "Yes, mamacita?" said Chonita, absently: she felt no interest in the loves of the Indians.
"Thus then, señorita, thus, my Prudencia, has Manuela virtually saved our house and ourselves. Hasten to embrace her! I have already permitted myself the salute of a father upon her charming cheek, as simple gratitude enjoined it." As if by magic could she have been listening in the passage? Manuela appeared, blushing and radiant.
Her cheeks burned with excitement, her eyes were restless and flashing. The music stopped. The women were eating the dulces passed by the Indian servants. The men had not yet gone into the dining-room. Valencia dropped her handkerchief; Reinaldo, stooping to recover it, kissed her hand behind its flimsy shelter. Then Prudencia arose.
I'll never forget what you done. Poor husband's last words before he was shot was thanking the Lord Miss Margaritty was off safe. We knew we could trust her with you." "Indeed," said honest Delmonte, "it is not me you must thank, Donna Prudencia. I did what I could, but it was Captain Montfort and his men who saved both her life and mine."
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