United States or Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
These questions were fairly rained on Lieutenant Walling, "One at a time, please," he said, as he gazed at the young people gathered about him in the cabin of the Ramona. "It was over a week ago that the passengers were put ashore on Double Island there were only your parents," he added, glancing again from Cora to the twins.
All day she moved and spoke with a softness unwonted, indeed inconceivable. She even spoke kindly and without constraint to Ramona. She felt like one brought back from the dead. After this, a new sort of life began for them all. Felipe's bed on the veranda was the rallying point for everything and everybody.. The servants came to look up at him, and wish him well, from the garden-walk below.
"No," said Ramona, again displeased, she knew not why, nor in fact knew she was displeased; "no, I was not looking for her. What is she doing there?" "She is washing," replied Alessandro, innocently. "Washing at this time of day!" thought Ramona, severely. I shall watch Margarita. The Senora would never allow this sort of thing."
"Yes, Senorita." Alessandro began to see whither these questions tended. It was not unlike the Senora's tactics, the way in which Ramona narrowed in her lines of interrogation. "Do the women of your people love their husbands very much?" "Very much, Senorita." A pause. It was very dark now.
With a calmness which was more dreadful than any wild outcry of grief, Ramona sat on the ground by Alessandro's body, and held his hands in hers. There was nothing to be done for him. The first shot had been fatal, close to his heart, the murderer aimed well; the after-shots, with the pistol, were from mere wanton brutality.
She was as much a musician born as Alessandro himself. As she rose from her knees, she whispered to Felipe: "Felipe, do find out which one of the Indians it is has that superb voice. I never heard anything like it." "Oh, that is Alessandro," replied Felipe, "old Pablo's son. He is a splendid fellow. Don't you recollect his singing two years ago?" "I was not here," replied Ramona; "you forget."
It will take the light out of the sun for her, when first she hears that he is dead." Father Gaspara was about to ask another question, when Ramona appeared in the doorway, flushed with running. She had carried the baby over to Juana's and left her there, that she might be free to serve the Father's supper. "I pray you tell her not," said Alessandro, under his breath; but it was too late.
But he was not a civilized man; he had to bring to bear on his present situation only simple, primitive, uneducated instincts and impulses. If Ramona had been a maiden of his own people or race, he would have drawn near to her as quickly as iron to the magnet.
Ramona flew, rather than ran. In a moment more, Alessandro had heard the light steps, turned, saw Ramona, and, with a cry, bounded forward, and they were clasped in each other's arms before they had looked in each other's faces. Ramona spoke first. Disengaging herself gently, and looking up, she began: "Alessandro " But at the first sight of his face she shrieked.
We began the meal with broth, which we finished in silence; and while we ate, Don Hilario's swift glances incessantly flew from face to face; Demetria, pale and evidently ill at ease, keeping her eyes cast down all the time. "Is there no wine this evening, Ramona?" asked the old man in querulous tones when the old woman rose to remove the broth basins.
Word Of The Day