Part 22 (1/2)
”Ah, you are not asleep, senor,” said she quietly ”I saw you fro you did not return, I began to grow anxious, and thought that, tired with your journey, you had fallen asleep out here I caerous to lie sleeping with your face exposed to the full moon”
I explained that I had felt restless and disinclined to sleep, regretted that I had caused her anxiety, and thanked her for her thoughtful kindness
Instead of leaving me then, she sat quietly down on the bench ”Senor,”
she said, ”if it is your intention to continue your journey to-morrow, let me advise you not to do so You can safely remain here for a few days, for in this sad house we have no visitors”
I told her that, acting on Santa Colo on to the Lomas de Rocha to see a person named Florentino Blanco in that place, ould probably be able to procure me a passport from Montevideo
”How fortunate it is that you have toldthe Loorously examined, and you could not possibly escape arrest if you went there Remain with us, senor; it is a poor house, but we are well disposed towards you To-o with a letter from you to Don Florentino, who is always ready to serve us, and he will do what you ithout seeking you”
I thanked her ware in her house
Somewhat to my surprise, she still remained seated on the bench
Presently she said:
”It is natural, senor, that you should not be glad to remain in a house so _triste_ But there will be no repetition of all you were obliged to endure on first entering it Whenever er to hi him for his son After the first day, however, he loses all interest in the new face, becoined”
This information relieved me, and I remarked that I supposed the loss of his son had been the cause of his ht; let me tell you how it happened,” she replied ”For this _estancia_ must seem to you a place unlike all others in the world, and it is only natural that a stranger should wish to know the reason of its sad condition I know that I can speak without fear of these things to one who is a friend to Santa Coloma”
”And to you, I hope, senorita,” I said
”Thank you, senor All my life has been spent here When I was a child my brother went into the army, then e of Montevideo had begun and I could not go there
At length ht here to die, as we thought Forin the balance Our enee was over, the Blanco leaders dead or driven into exile My father had been one of the bravest officers in the Blanco forces, and could not hope to escape the general persecution They only waited for his recovery to arrest him and convey him to the capital, where, doubtless, he would have been shot While he lay in this precarious condition every wrong and indignity was heaped upon us Our horses were seized by the cohtered or driven off and sold, while our house was searched for arms and visited every week by an officer who came to report on my father's health One reason for this animosity was that Calixto, ainst the governth my father recovered so far from his wounds as to be able to creep out for an hour every day leaning on souard here to prevent his escape We were thus living in continual dread when one day an officer came and produced a written order from the Comandante He did not read it to me, but said it was an order for every person in the Rocha depart at a victory won by the government troops I told him that we did not wish to disobey the Co up He answered that he had brought one for that purpose with hi to the roof of the house, he raised and made it fast there Not satisfied with these insults, he ordered ht see the flag over his house My father ca on my shoulder, and when he had cast up his eyes and seen the red flag he turned and cursed the officer 'Go back,' he cried, 'to the dog, your master, and tell him that Colonel Peralta is still a Blanco in spite of your dishonourable flag Tell that insolent slave of Brazil that when I was disabled I passed hting for his country's independence' The officer, who hadthe order froalloped away My father picked up the paper and read these words: 'Let there be displayed on every house in this departs of a victory won by the government troops, in which that recreant son of the republic, the infamous assassin and traitor, Calixto Peralta, was slain!' Alas, senor, loving his son above all things, hoping so , my poor father could not resist this last blow From that cruel moment he was deprived of reason; and to that calamity e it that he was not put to death and that our enemies ceased to persecute us”
Deical story Poor woreat and enduringher hand, told her how deeply her sad story had pained ht with a sad srief-clouded countenance since I had seen her I could well ier must have seemed sweet to her in that dreary isolation
After she left hostly character and my fantastic superstitions had vanished I was back once more in the world of men and women, and could only think of the inhumanity of man to man, and of the infinite pain silently endured by many hearts in that Purple Land The only mystery still unsolved in that ruinous _estancia_ was Don Hilario, who locked up the wine and was called _ht it necessary to apologise to
CHAPTER XXIV
I spent several days with the Peraltas at their desolate, _kineless_ cattle-farm, which was known in the country round simply as _Estancia_ or _Campos de Peralta_ Such weariso about Paquita away in Montevideo, that I wasfor the passport, which Don Florentino had proet for -leaf into the open Demetria's prudent counsels, however, prevailed, so that my departure was put off from day to day The only pleasure I experienced in the house arose froreeable break in the sad, ical story had stirred rew every day to know her better I began to appreciate and estee character Notwithstanding the dreary seclusion in which she had lived, seeing no society, and with only those old servants, so prihtest trace of rusticity in herht alnity of manner one only expects to find in women socially well placed in our own country When ere all together at_mate,_ she was invariably silent, alith that shadow of some concealed anxiety on her face; but when alone with me, or when only old Santos and Rahten up and the rare smile come more frequently to her lips Then, at times, she would beco with lively interest to all I told her about the great world of which she was so ignorant, and laughing, too, at her own ignorance of things known to every town-bred child
When these pleasant conversations took place in the kitchen the two old servants would sit gazing at the face of their mistress, apparently absorbed in adarded her as the h there was a ludicrous side to their sian to know her better They re a beloved lad or pathetic, how they sympathise with all histo make me uneasy; after the first day he never talked tomy presence except to salute me in a ceremonious manner e met at table He would spend his day between his easy-chair in the house and the rustic bench under the trees, where he would sit for hours at a ti forward on his stick, his preternaturally brilliant eyes watching everything seeent interest But he would not speak He aiting for his son, thinking his fierce thoughts to himself Like a bird blown far out over a tu over that wild and troubled past--that half a century of fierce passions and bloody warfare in which he had acted a conspicuous part And perhaps it was solorious future when Calixto, lying far off in so creepers covering his bones, should come back victorious from the wars
My conversations with Deether; for Don Hilario, as not in harmony with us, was always there, polite, subdued, watchful, but not a man that one could take into his heart The h I am not prejudiced about snakes, as the reader already knows, believing as I do that ancient tradition haschildren of our universal mother, I can think of no epithet except _snaky_ to describe this man Wherever I happened to be about the place he had a way of coh the weeds on his belly as it were, then suddenly appearing unawares before ested a subtle, cold-blooded, venolances of his, which perpetually ca rapidity, reaze of the serpent's lidless eyes, but of the flickering little forked tongue, that flickers, flickers, vanishes and flickers again, and is never for one moment at rest Who was this h manifestly not loved by anyone, absolute master of the _estancia_? He never asked me a question about myself, for it was not in his nature to ask questions, but he had evidently forreeable suspicions about me that made him look on me as a possible ene out, and wherever I went he was always ready to acco with her, there he would be to take part in our conversation
At length the piece of paper so long waited for came from the Lo that I was a subject of Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Victoria, all fears and hesitation were dismissed from my mind and I prepared to depart for Montevideo
The instant Don Hilario heard that I was about to leave the _estancia_ his ed; he beca ift, and saying reeable moments he had spent inabout welcouest; but I knew very well that he was anxious enough to see the last of me