Part 10 (1/2)
”What are you saying about sins and hardness of heart? Have you taken leave of your senses? What sins can you have committed, you who are so good?”
”No, father, I am not good. I have been deceiving you; I have been deceiving myself; I have tried to deceive G.o.d.”
”Come, come, calm yourself; speak with moderation and common sense, and don't talk foolishly.”
”And how shall I avoid talking foolishly when the spirit of evil possesses me?”
”Holy Virgin! Don't talk nonsense, child; the demons most to be feared that take possession of the soul are three, and none of them, I am certain, can have dared to enter into yours. One is Leviathan, or the spirit of Pride; the other is Mammon, or the spirit of Avarice; and the other is Asmodeus or the spirit of Unholy Love.”
”Well, I am the victim of all three; all three hold dominion over me.”
”This is dreadful! Calm yourself, I repeat. The real trouble with you is that you are out of your head.”
”Would to G.o.d it were so! The contrary, unhappily for me, is the case. I am avaricious, because I possess riches, and do not perform the works of charity I ought to perform; I am proud, because I scorn the addresses of my many suitors, not through virtue, not through modesty, but because I thought them unworthy of my love. G.o.d has punished me; G.o.d has permitted the third enemy you have named to take possession of me.”
”How is this, child? What diabolical notion has entered into your mind?
Have you by chance fallen in love? And, if you have, what harm is there in that? Are you not free? Get married, then, and stop talking nonsense.
I am certain it is my friend Don Pedro de Vargas who has wrought the miracle. That same Don Pedro is the very devil! I confess I am surprised, though. I did not think matters had gone quite so far as that already.”
”But it is not Don Pedro de Vargas I am in love with.”
”And with whom, then?”
Pepita rose from her seat, went to the door, opened it, looked to see if any one was listening outside, drew near to the reverend vicar, and, with signs of the deepest distress, in a trembling voice, and with tears in her eyes, said, almost in the ear of the good old man:
”I am hopelessly in love with his son.”
”With whose son?” cried the reverend vicar, who could not yet bring himself to believe what he had heard.
”With whose son should it be? I am hopelessly, desperately in love with Don Luis.”
Consternation and dolorous surprise were depicted on the countenance of the kind and simple priest. There was a moment's pause; the vicar then said:
”But this is a love without hope; a love not to be thought of. Don Luis will not love you in return.”
In the midst of the tears that clouded the beautiful eyes of Pepita gleamed a joyful light; her rosy, dewy lips, contracted by sorrow, parted in a smile, disclosing to view her pearly teeth.
”He loves me,” said Pepita, with a faint and ill-concealed accent of satisfaction and triumph that rose exultant over her sorrow and her scruples of conscience.
The consternation and the astonishment of the reverend vicar here reached their highest pitch. If the saint to whom he paid his most fervent devotions had been suddenly cast down from the altar before him, and had fallen, broken into a thousand fragments at his feet, the reverend vicar could not have felt greater consternation than he did. He still looked at Pepita with incredulity, as if doubting whether what she had said were true, or only a delusion of feminine vanity, so firmly did he believe in the holiness of Don Luis, and in his spiritual-mindedness.
”He loves me,” Pepita repeated, in answer to his incredulous glance.
”Women are worse than the very devil!” said the vicar. ”You would set a snare for the old boy himself.”
”Did I not tell you already that I was very wicked?”
”Come, come! calm yourself. The mercy of G.o.d is infinite. Tell me all that has happened.”
”What should have happened? That he is dear to me; that I love him; that I adore him; that he loves me, too, although he strives to conquer his love, and, in the end, may succeed in doing so; and that you, without knowing it, are very much to blame for it all!”