Part 7 (1/2)
Again he fell into reflective silence, shortly after announcing the result of his meditations.
”Be that as it may be, we must recognize that here life is more tranquil than in the other world. Men are taken for what they are worth, and mingle together without thinking whether they came from one country or another. Over here, fellows do not come in droves to kill other fellows whom they do not know and whose only crime is that they were born in an unfriendly country... . Man is a bad beast everywhere, I know that; but here he eats, owns more land than he needs so that he can stretch himself, and he is good with the goodness of a well-fed dog. Over there, there are too many; they live in heaps getting in each other's way, and easily run amuck. Hurrah for Peace, Frenchy, and the simple life! Where a man can live comfortably and runs no danger of being killed for things he doesn't understand--there is his real homeland!”
And as though an echo of the rustic's reflections, Karl seated at the piano, began chanting in a low voice one of Beethoven's hymns--
”We sing the joy of life, We sing of liberty, We'll ne'er betray our fellow-man, Though great the guerdon be.”
Peace! ... A few days afterward Desnoyers recalled bitterly the old man's illusion, for war--domestic war--broke loose in this idyllic stage-setting of ranch life.
”Run, Senor Manager, the old Patron has unsheathed his knife and is going to kill the German!” And Desnoyers had hurried from his office, warned by the peon's summons. Madariaga was chasing Karl, knife in hand, stumbling over everything that blocked his way. Only his son-in-law dared to stop him and disarm him.
”That shameless pedigreed fellow!” bellowed the livid old man as he writhed in Desnoyers' firm clutch. ”Half famished, all he thinks he has to do is to come to my house and take away my daughters and dollars.
... Let me go, I tell you! Let me loose that I may kill him.”
And in order to free himself from Desnoyers, he tried further to explain the difficulty. He had accepted the Frenchman as a husband for his daughter because he was to his liking, modest, honest ... and serious.
But this singing Pedigreed Fellow, with all his airs! ... He was a man that he had gotten from ... well, he didn't wish to say just where!
And the Frenchman, though knowing perfectly well what his introduction to Karl had been, pretended not to understand him.
As the German had, by this time, made good his escape, the ranchman consented to being pushed toward his house, talking all the time about giving a beating to the Romantica and another to the China for not having informed him of the courts.h.i.+p. He had surprised his daughter and the Gringo holding hands and exchanging kisses in a grove near the house.
”He's after my dollars,” howled the irate father. ”He wants America to enrich him quickly at the expense of the old Spaniard, and that is the reason for so much truckling, so much psalm-singing and so much n.o.bility! Imposter! ... Musician!”
And he repeated the word ”musician” with contempt, as though it were the sum and substance of everything vile.
Very firmly and with few words, Desnoyers brought the wrangling to an end. While her brother-in-law protected her retreat, the Romantica, clinging to her mother, had taken refuge in the top of the house, sobbing and moaning, ”Oh, the poor little fellow! Everybody against him!” Her sister meanwhile was exerting all the powers of a discreet daughter with the rampageous old man in the office, and Desnoyers had gone in search of Karl. Finding that he had not yet recovered from the shock of his terrible surprise, he gave him a horse, advising him to betake himself as quickly as possible to the nearest railway station.
Although the German was soon far from the ranch, he did not long remain alone. In a few days, the Romantica followed him... . Iseult of the white hands went in search of Tristan, the knight.
This event did not cause Madariaga's desperation to break out as violently as his son-in-law had expected. For the first time, he saw him weep. His gay and robust old age had suddenly fallen from him, the news having clapped ten years on to his four score. Like a child, whimpering and tremulous, he threw his arms around Desnoyers, moistening his neck with tears.
”He has taken her away! That son of a great flea ... has taken her away!”
This time he did not lay all the blame on his China. He wept with her, and as if trying to console her by a public confession, kept saying over and over:
”It is my fault... . It has all been because of my very, very great sins.”
Now began for Desnoyers a period of difficulties and conflicts. The fugitives, on one of his visits to the Capital, threw themselves on his mercy, imploring his protection. The Romantica wept, declaring that only her brother-in-law, ”the most knightly man in the world,” could save her. Karl gazed at him like a faithful hound trusting in his master.
These trying interviews were repeated on all his trips. Then, on returning to the ranch, he would find the old man ill-humored, moody, looking fixedly ahead of him as though seeing invisible power and wailing, ”It is my punishment--the punishment for my sins.”
The memory of the discreditable circ.u.mstances under which he had made Karl's acquaintance, before bringing him into his home, tormented the old centaur with remorse. Some afternoons, he would have a horse saddled, going full gallop toward the neighboring village. But he was no longer hunting hospitable ranches. He needed to pa.s.s some time in the church, speaking alone with the images that were there only for him--since he had footed the bills for them... . ”Through my sin, through my very great sin!”
But in spite of his self-reproach, Desnoyers had to work very hard to get any kind of a settlement out of the old penitent. Whenever he suggested legalizing the situation and making the necessary arrangements for their marriage, the old tyrant would not let him go on. ”Do what you think best, but don't say anything to me about it.”
Several months pa.s.sed by. One day the Frenchman approached him with a certain air of mystery. ”Elena has a son and has named him 'Julio' after you.”
”And you, you great useless hulk,” stormed the ranchman, ”and that weak cow of a wife of yours, you dare to live tranquilly on without giving me a grandson! ... Ah, Frenchy, that is why the Germans will finally overwhelm you. You see it, right here. That bandit has a son, while you, after four years of marriage ... nothing. I want a grandson!--do you understand THAT?”
And in order to console himself for this lack of little ones around his own hearth, he betook himself to the ranch of his overseer, Celedonio, where a band of little half-breeds gathered tremblingly and hopefully about him.
Suddenly China died. The poor Misia Petrona pa.s.sed away as discreetly as she had lived, trying even in her last hours to avoid all annoyance for her husband, asking his pardon with an imploring look for any trouble which her death might cause him. Elena came to the ranch in order to see her mother's body for the last time, and Desnoyers who for more than a year had been supporting them behind his father-in-law's back, took advantage of this occasion to overcome the old man's resentment.