Part 11 (2/2)

Doubtless it was a delusion; her mother was not really there above listening to the girl's voice. Still, in some mysterious way, Rima had become to me, even as to superst.i.tious old Nuflo, a being apart and sacred, and this feeling seemed to mix with my pa.s.sion, to purify and exalt it and make it infinitely sweet and precious.

After we had been silent for some time, I said: ”Old man, the result of the grand discussion you have had with Rima is that you have agreed to take her to Riolama, but about my accompanying you not one word has been spoken by either of you.”

He stopped short to stare at me, and although it was too dark to see his face, I felt his astonishment. ”Senor!” he exclaimed, ”we cannot go without you. Have you not heard my granddaughter's words--that it is only because of you that she is about to undertake this crazy journey?

If you are not with us in this thing, then, senor, here we must remain.

But what will Rima say to that?”

”Very well, I will go, but only on one condition.”

”What is it?” he asked, with a sudden change of tone, which warned me that he was becoming cautious again.

”That you tell me the whole story of Rima's origin, and how you came to be now living with her in this solitary place, and who these people are she wishes to visit at Riolama.”

”Ah, senor, it is a long story, and sad. But you shall hear it all.

You must hear it, senor, since you are now one of us; and when I am no longer here to protect her, then she will be yours. And although you will never be able to do more than old Nuflo for her, perhaps she will be better pleased; and you, senor, better able to exist innocently by her side, without eating flesh, since you will always have that rare flower to delight you. But the story would take long to tell. You shall hear it all as we journey to Riolama. What else will there be to talk about when we are walking that long distance, and when we sit at night by the fire?”

”No, no, old man, I am not to be put off in that way. I must hear it before I start.”

But he was determined to reserve the narrative until the journey, and after some further argument I yielded the point.

CHAPTER XIII

That evening by the fire old Nuflo, lately so miserable, now happy in his delusions, was more than usually gay and loquacious. He was like a child who by timely submission has escaped a threatened severe punishment. But his lightness of heart was exceeded by mine; and, with the exception of one other yet to come, that evening now s.h.i.+nes in memory as the happiest my life has known. For Rima's sweet secret was known to me; and her very ignorance of the meaning of the feeling she experienced, which caused her to fly from me as from an enemy, only served to make the thought of it more purely delightful.

On this occasion she did not steal away like a timid mouse to her own apartment, as her custom was, but remained to give that one evening a special grace, seated well away from the fire in that same shadowy corner where I had first seen her indoors, when I had marvelled at her altered appearance. From that corner she could see my face, with the firelight full upon it, she herself in shadow, her eyes veiled by their drooping lashes. Sitting there, the vivid consciousness of my happiness was like draughts of strong, delicious wine, and its effect was like wine, imparting such freedom to fancy, such fluency, that again and again old Nuflo applauded, crying out that I was a poet, and begging me to put it all into rhyme. I could not do that to please him, never having acquired the art of improvisation--that idle trick of making words jingle which men of Nuflo's cla.s.s in my country so greatly admire; yet it seemed to me on that evening that my feelings could be adequately expressed only in that sublimated language used by the finest minds in their inspired moments; and, accordingly, I fell to reciting. But not from any modern, nor from the poets of the last century, nor even from the greater seventeenth century. I kept to the more ancient romances and ballads, the sweet old verse that, whether glad or sorrowful, seems always natural and spontaneous as the song of a bird, and so simple that even a child can understand it.

It was late that night before all the romances I remembered or cared to recite were exhausted, and not until then did Rima come out of her shaded corner and steal silently away to her sleeping-place.

Although I had resolved to go with them, and had set Nuflo's mind at rest on the point, I was bent on getting the request from Rima's own lips; and the next morning the opportunity of seeing her alone presented itself, after old Nuflo had sneaked off with his dogs. From the moment of his departure I kept a close watch on the house, as one watches a bush in which a bird one wishes to see has concealed itself, and out of which it may dart at any moment and escape unseen.

At length she came forth, and seeing me in the way, would have slipped back into hiding; for, in spite of her boldness on the previous day, she now seemed shyer than ever when I spoke to her.

”Rima,” I said, ”do you remember where we first talked together under a tree one morning, when you spoke of your mother, telling me that she was dead?”

”Yes.”

”I am going now to that spot to wait for you. I must speak to you again in that place about this journey to Riolama.” As she kept silent, I added: ”Will you promise to come to me there?”

She shook her head, turning half away.

”Have you forgotten our compact, Rima?”

”No,” she returned; and then, suddenly coming near, spoke in a low tone: ”I will go there to please you, and you must also do as I tell you.”

”What do you wish, Rima?”

She came nearer still. ”Listen! You must not look into my eyes, you must not touch me with your hands.”

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