Part 33 (1/2)
”If such reflections did anything to bring you nearer G.o.d, and make you labour in His service, I should be glad indeed.”
”Do you think I do nothing in His service, when I spend above five thousand dollars in ma.s.ses every year?”
”Come, Antonio, do not talk like that.”
”My dear child, it is a very good thing to think of the next world, but it is prudent, to say the least, to think of this world to. I have just lately been considering that if you or I were to die, there would be no end of complications for the survivor.”
”Why?”
”Because husband and wife are not by law nearest of kin to each other, and if by chance either of us died intestate, our relations would be a perfect torment to the survivor.”
”For that there is an easy remedy. We make our wills and it is settled.”
”That is just what I have been thinking,” said Salabert, endeavouring to make a show of calm indifference, which he was far from feeling. ”It struck me that instead of our each making an independent will, we might come to a mutual arrangement.”
”What is that?”
”A will by which each is the heir to the other.”
Dona Carmen looked down at the book she still held, and did not immediately answer. The Duke, somewhat uneasy, watched her narrowly from under his eyelids, gnawing his cigar with impatience.
”That is impossible,” said she at last, very gravely.
”What is impossible? And why?” he hastily asked, sitting upright in his chair.
”Because I intend to leave all I have, whether much or little, to your daughter. I have promised her that I will.”
Salabert had never dreamed of stumbling on such an obstacle, he had thought of the mutual bequest as a settled thing. He was equally startled and vexed, but he immediately recovered himself, and a.s.suming a serious and dignified manner, he spoke:
”Very good, Carmen. I have no wish to coerce you in the matter. You are mistress of your possessions, and can leave them to whom you choose, though you must remember that that fortune has been earned by me at the cost of much toil. During the years of our married life, pecuniary questions have never given rise to any differences between us, and I sincerely wish that they never may. Money, as compared with the feelings of the heart, is of no importance whatever. The thing that pains me is the thought that any other person, even though it be my own daughter, should have usurped my place in your affections.”
At these words his voice broke a little.
”No, Antonio, no,” Dona Carmen hastened to put in. ”Neither your daughter nor any one else can rob you of the affection due to you. But you are rich enough without needing my fortune, and she wants it.”
”No. It is vain to try to soften the blow, I feel it in the depths of my heart,” replied Salabert in pathetic accents, and pressing one hand to his left side. ”Five-and-thirty years of married life, five-and-thirty years of joys and griefs, of fears and hopes in common, have not availed to secure me the foremost place in your affections. Nothing that can be said will remedy that. I fancied that our union, the years of love and happiness that we have spent together, might be closed by an act which would crown our lives by making one of us inherit the whole of what we have gained. The devotion of a husband and wife is never better displayed than in a last will and testament.”
Requena's oratory had risen to a tone of moral dignity which, for a moment, seemed to impress his wife. However, she replied with perfect sweetness but unshaken firmness:
”Though Clementina is not my own flesh and blood, I love her as if she were. I have always regarded her as my own child, and it seems to me an act of injustice to deprive a child of its share of an inheritance.”
”But, my dear,” exclaimed the Duke vehemently, ”for whom do you suppose I want it but for my daughter? Make me your heir, and I pledge myself to transmit it to her, not only undiminished but greatly augmented.”
Dona Carmen kept silence, but shook her head in negation. Her husband rose as though emotion were quite too much for him.
”Oh, yes! I understand! You cannot forgive me some little errors of caprice and folly. You are taking advantage of this opportunity of revenge. Very well, very well. Indulge your vengeance; but believe me when I say that I have never loved any woman better than you. The heart cannot be made to obey orders, Carmen; if I desired to tear your image out of mine, my heart would answer: 'No, I cannot give it up without breaking.' It is sad, very sad, to meet with so cruel a disenchantment at the end of our lives. If you were to die to-morrow, which G.o.d forbid!
what worries and troubles must await me, besides the grief of losing the wife I adore. Why I, a poor old man, might be compelled to quit the house where I have lived so many years, which I built and beautified in the hope of dying under its roof in your arms!”
Requena's voice broke at judicious intervals, and his eyes filled with tears. When he ceased speaking he sank into his armchair as though quite crushed, pressing his handkerchief to his eyes.