Part 4 (2/2)
”She acts the part to perfection,” he said to me. ”Either natural or acquired coquetry has more to do with saving her from the solitary plane of the intellectual woman than her beauty or her father's wealth. I am inclined to think that it is acquired. I do not believe that she is a coquette at heart, any more than that she is the marble doomswoman she fondly believes herself.”
”You will tell her that,” I exclaimed, angrily; ”and she will end by loving you because you understand her; all women want to be understood. Why don't you go to Paris again? You have not been there for a long time.”
Not deeming this suggestion worthy of answer, he left me and walked to Chonita, who was glancing over the top of her fan into the ardent eyes of a third caballero.
”You will step on a bunch of nettles in a moment,” he said, practically. ”Your slippers are very thin; you had better stand over here on the path.” And he dexterously separated her from the other men. ”Will you walk to that opening over there with me? I want to show you a better view of Monterey.”
His manner had not a touch of gallantry, and she was tired of the caballeros.
”Very well,” she said. ”I will look at the view.”
As she followed him she noted that he led her where the bushes were thinnest, and kicked the stones from her path. She also remarked the nervous energy of his thin figure. ”It comes from his love of the Americans,” she thought, angrily. ”He must even walk like them. The Americans!” And she brought her teeth together with a sharp click.
He turned, smiling. ”You look very disapproving,” he said. ”What have I done?”
”You look like an American! You even wear their clothes, and they are the color of smoke; and you wear no lace. How cold and uninteresting a scene would this be if all the men were dressed as you are!”
”We cannot all be made for decorative purposes. And you are as unlike those girls, in all but your dress, as I am unlike the men. I will not incur your wrath by saying that you are American: but you are modern.
Our lovely compatriots were the same three hundred years ago. Will Dona California be pleased to observe that whale spouting in the bay?
There is the tree beneath which Junipero Serra said his first ma.s.s in this part of the country. What a sanctimonious old fraud he must have been, if he looked anything like his pictures! Did you ever see bay bluer than that? or sand whiter? or a more perfect semicircle of hills than this? or a more straggling town? There is the Custom-house on the rocks. You will go to a ball there to-night, and hear the boom of the surf as you dance.” He turned with one of his sudden impatient motions. ”Suppose we ride. The air is too sharp to lie about under the trees. This white horse mates your gown. Let us go over to Carmelo.”
”I should like to go,” she said, doubtfully; he had made her throb with indignation once or twice, but his conversation interested her and her free spirit approved of a ride over the hills unattended by duena. ”But--you know--I do not like you.”
”Oh, never mind that; the ride will interest you just the same.” And he lifted her to the horse, sprang on another, caught her bridle, lest she should rebel, and galloped up the road. When they were on the other side of hill he slackened speed and looked at her with a smile.
She was inclined to be angry, but found herself watching the varying expressions of his mouth, which diverted her mind. It was a baffling mouth, even to experienced women, and Chonita could make nothing of it. It had neither sweetness nor softness, but she had never felt impelled to study the mouth of a caballero. And then she wondered how a man with a mouth like that could have manners so gentle.
”Are you aware,” he said, abruptly, ”that your brother is accused of conspiracy?”
”What?” She looked at him as if she inferred that this was the order of badinage that an Iturbi y Moncada might expect from an Estenega.
”I am not joking. It is quite true.”
”It is not true! Reinaldo conspire against his government? Some one has lied. And you are ready to believe!”
”I hope some one has lied. The news is very direct, however.” He looked at her speculatively. ”The more obstacles the better,” he thought; ”and we may as well declare war on this question at once.
Besides, it is no use to begin as a hypocrite, when every act would tell her what I thought of him. Moreover, he will have more or less influence over her until her eyes are opened to his true worth. She will not believe me, of course, but she is a woman who only needs an impetus to do a good deal of thinking and noting.” ”I am going to make you angry,” he said. ”I am going to tell you that I do not share your admiration of your brother. He has ten thousand words for every idea, and although, G.o.d knows, we have more time than anything else in this land of the poppy where only the horses run, still there are more profitable ways of employing it than to listen to meaningless and bombastic words. Moreover, your brother is a dangerous man. No man is so safe in seclusion as the one of large vanities and small ambitions.
He is not big enough to conceive a revolution, but is ready to be the tool of any unscrupulous man who is, and, having too much egotism to follow orders, will ruin a project at the last moment by attempting to think for himself. I do not say these things to wantonly insult you, senorita, only to let you know at once how I regard your brother, that you may not accuse me of treachery or hypocrisy later.”
He had expected and hoped that she would turn upon him with a burst of fury; but she had drawn herself up to her most stately height, and was looking at him with cold hauteur. Her mouth was as hard as a pink jewel, and her eyes had the glitter of ice in them.
”Senor,” she said, ”it seems to me that you, too, waste many words--in speaking of my brother; for what you say of him cannot interest me.
I have known him for twenty-two years; you have seen him four or six times. What can you tell me of him? Not only is he my brother and the natural object of my love and devotion, but he is Reinaldo Iturbi y Moncada, the last male descendant of his house, and as such I hold him in a regard only second to that which I bear to my father. And with the blood in him he could not be otherwise than a great and good man.”
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