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Now that he was becoming a man, the only occasion for him to have her company was this ball on the green of the square, in the light of the stars or of the moon. They had fallen in love with each other five years ago, Ramuntcho and Gracieuse, when they were still children.
That is what they were saying, in the pale half light, the things so dull and so tired. And Ramuntcho, who had heard, pitied himself for having hesitated so long for imaginary reasons. To himself he swore, with a harsher despair, that this morning he was decided; that he would do it, at the risk of everything; that nothing would make him hesitate longer.
Ramuntcho, with an habitual brusque and graceful gesture, changed his waistcoat from one shoulder to the other, pulled his cap on the side, and, with no other farewell than a sign of the head, they separated, for Dolores was coming from the end of the road. Midnight, a winter night, black as Hades, with great wind and whipping rain.
After a moment of silence Gracieuse said, in a low, solemn voice: "Listen, my Ramuntcho I am like you: I am afraid of her of my mother But listen if she refuses, we shall do together anything, anything that you wish, for this is the only thing in the world in which I shall not obey her "
"I tell you that she will follow you," repeats his friend, striking him rudely on the leg in protective encouragement, as soon as he sees Ramuntcho sombre and lost in a dream. "I tell you that she will follow you, I am sure! If she hesitates, well, leave the rest to me!"
They are well-known travelers there, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, and while men are lighting the fire for them they sit near an antique, mullioned window, which overlooks the square of the ball-game and the church; they see the tranquil, little life of the day ending in this place so separated from the world.
And, at the corners of roads, the old crosses appear, ever with their similar inscriptions: "O crux, ave, spes unica!" Amezqueta, at the last twilight. They stop their carriage at an outskirt of the village, before the cider mill. Arrochkoa is impatient to go into the house of the sisters, vexed at arriving so late; he fears that the door may not be opened to them. Ramuntcho, silent, lets him act.
Ramuntcho looks at him then, trembling at what he imagines he understands: "Even now? What do you mean?" "Oh, women with them, does one ever know? She cared a great deal for you and it was hard for her. In these days there is no law to keep her there! How little would I care if she broke her vows " Ramuntcho turns his head, lowers his eyes, says nothing, strikes the soil with his foot.
"You," says Itchoua to Ramuntcho, in his manner which admits of no discussion, "you shall be the one to watch the bark, since you have never been in the path that we are taking; you shall tie it to the bottom, but not too solidly, do you hear? We must be ready to run if the carbineers arrive."
The hour, one knew not why, became strangely solemn, as if the shade of past centuries was to come out of the soil. On the vast lifting-up which is called the Pyrenees, one felt something soaring which was, perhaps, the finishing mind of that race, the fragments of which have been preserved and to which Ramuntcho belonged by his mother
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