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Updated: August 21, 2024
Maruja, who had been standing near the carriage, languidly silent and abstracted even under the tender attentions of Carroll, suddenly felt the consciousness of another pair of eyes fixed upon her. Looking up, she was surprised to find herself regarded by the man she had twice met, once as a tramp and once as a wayfarer at the fonda, who had quietly joined a group not far from her.
"A pocket-book of the Doctor's?" repeated Dona Maria. "Ay; but it contained nothing of thine," said Maruja. "The poor child had sense enough to think of that. But I am in no hurry to ask your consent and your blessing yet, little mother. I could even bear that Amita should precede me to the altar, if the exigencies of thy 'business' require it. It might also secure Captain Carroll for me.
He stopped, as a startled, surly animal might have stopped at some unusual object, but did not exhibit any other discomposure. Maruja stopped at the same moment on her side of the fence. The tramp looked at her deliberately, and then slowly lowered his eyes. "I'm looking for the San Jose road, hereabouts. Ye don't happen to know it?" he said, addressing himself to the top of the fence.
"Let us fly at once and discover the secret, then," said Raymond, slipping Amita's arm through his. "We will consult the oracle in the stables. Come." The others followed, leaving Maruja for an instant alone.
She felt herself breathlessly hanging on the speaker's next words. "Why, that's the young man of the fonda, who picked up your fan," said Carroll, "isn't it?" "Perhaps," said Maruja, indifferently. She would have given worlds to have been able to turn coldly and stare at him at that moment with the others, but she dared not.
And of a truth, child, since the affair of the letters, and his discreet and honorable conduct since, I see not why thou shouldst. He has thy mother's reputation in his hands." "He is a gentleman, my mother," said Maruja, quietly. "And they are scarce, child, and should be rewarded and preserved. That is what I meant, silly one; this Captain is not rich but then, thou hast enough for both."
"It is that man that coyote, Dona Maruja, that is unworthy of your father, of your mother, of YOU!" he gesticulated, in a fierce whisper. "I, Pereo, do not spy. I follow, follow the track of the prowling, stealing brute until I run him down. Yes, it was I, Pereo, who warned your father he would not be content with the half of the land he stole!
I am not mad, though I am desperate. I know what is due to your station and mine even while I dare to say I love you. Let me hope, Maruja, I only ask to hope." She looked at him until she had absorbed all the burning fever of his eyes, until her ears tingled with his passionate voice, and then she shook her head. "It can not be, Carroll no! never!"
Without a further thought of his companion or even the luckless Faquita, Carroll also plunged through the hedge, to intercept Maruja. But by that time she was already crossing the upper end of the lawn, hurrying towards the entrance to the patio. Carroll did not hesitate to follow.
"You surely would not consent to this, my mother?" said Maruja, with a sudden impression of a newly found force in her mother's character. "Why not, child?" said the relict of Mr. Saltonstall and the mourner of Dr. West, coldly.
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