Part 46 (1/2)
Up the river, and up the river, Water will never run up to the town; Down the river, and down the river, All the world is bound to run down.
The engineer remarked in explanation:
”A party of miners, going down in the cage which serves as a counterpoise to this one.”
”I told you so, Condesa,” exclaimed Salabert in a triumphant tone. ”If they are in spirits to sing, they cannot be so miserable as you fancy.”
The lady was silent for a moment, then she said, with a melancholy smile:
”It is not a very mirthful ditty, Duke.”
This was going on in the upper compartment. In the lower division, Escosura observed in a scornful tone to the chief engineer:
”Do you know that your young doctor was so rash as to give us a taste of his materialistic views?”
”Materialistic! I do not know that he is a Materialist. What he prides himself on being--and the miners wors.h.i.+p him for it--is a Socialist.”
”Worse and worse.”
”To tell the truth,” said Penalver, with a sigh, ”it is impossible to come up from the bottom of a mine without having caught a little of the infection.”
At nine in the evening, after dining at Villalegre, the party returned to Madrid, by special train. They all set out well content with the excursion. They hoped to amaze their friends by their account of the underground banquet. The only unhappy person was Raimundo. The alternations of joy and anguish which Clementina's flirtation occasioned him had quite quenched his spirit. At last, seeing him so sad and exhausted, his mistress was merciful. She made him sit by her in the train, and without scandalising a party who were cured of all such weakness, she talked to him all the evening, and finally dropped asleep with her head on his shoulder.
Though a sleeping-car formed part of the train, it was not in favour.
Most of the travellers preferred remaining in the saloons. Towards morning, however, sleep overcame them all, and they succ.u.mbed where they sat, in a variety of att.i.tudes, some of them by no means graceful.
Ramon Maldonado was on a pinnacle of triumph and happiness. Esperancita, to judge by appearances, must certainly love him. He felt lifted above the earth, not merely by the natural superiority of his soul, but by the ecstasy of joy. His ugly little face was as radiant as a G.o.d's. Farewell for ever to the struggles and obstacles which had hitherto embittered his life. Free henceforth from the service of sorrow, as are the immortals, he gloried in his apotheosis, majestically serene.
He, too, had seated himself next the idol of his heroic heart, and for some hours sat talking to her in dulcet tones--of English cobs, and of the great pitched battles which were being constantly fought in the munic.i.p.al council, and in which he bore an active part; till the innocent child, soothed by the monotonous and insinuating discourse, closed her eyes, with her head thrown back against the cus.h.i.+on.
Maldonado remained awake, wide awake, thinking of his happiness.
Rosy-fingered Aurora, stepping over the ridge of the distant Sierra, and flying swiftly across the wide plain, peeped through the blinds of the carriages, diffusing a dim and subdued light, and still he was hugging himself in contentment.
Esperancita opened her eyes and smiled at him with a tender smile which thrilled the deepest fibres of his lyric soul. At this instant a lark began to sing. In Ramoncito the G.o.d was each moment growing more distinct from the man; intoxicated with love and happiness he murmured into the girl's ear, in a voice tremulous with emotion, a few incoherent and ardent phrases, the expression of the divine madness. Esperanza shut her eyes again--to hear that music better?
When he had exhausted all the superlatives in the dictionary to describe his pa.s.sion, the poetic young civilian thought to achieve the task of conquest by showing the damsel, as in a vision, all the glories he could shed upon her: ”He was an only son, his parents had an income of a hundred and ten thousand reales[H] a year; at the next ensuing elections he intended to stand as candidate for Navalperal, where his family had estates, and if only he had the support of the Government he was certain to succeed. Then, as the Conservative party were greatly in need of new blood, he believed he should soon get an appointment as under secretary, and--who could tell?--by-and-by, at a change of Ministry, find himself entrusted with a portfolio.”
The girl still kept her eyes shut. Ramoncito, more and more excited, when he had ended this catalogue of brilliant prospects, bent over her and whispered in impa.s.sioned tones: ”Do you love me, dearest, do you love me?”
No answer.
”Tell me, do you love me?”
Esperancita, without opening her eyes, answered curtly:
”No.”
CHAPTER XVI.