CHAPTER XVI.
A day went by, and though I had become even letter-perfect in my newrole I had not the chance to play it to my audience; but it came atlast.
It was in the long, dreamy hour of the early afternoon, when sleep comeseasiest. Dona Orosia had ordered her couch to be placed in the shadiestpart of the breezy garden, close against the gray stone wall. Designedlyshe chose the corner nearest the iron gate, through which we couldcommand a portion of the sunny street; and here she lay and made me singto her all the songs I knew, the while she dozed and waked again, andwhiles teased her parrot into uttering discordant cries until for veryanger I would sing no more.
Suddenly she laid aside her petulance, and with a quick, imperiousgesture bade me take up the lute again; then, falling back among herpillows, she closed her eyes and let her bosom rise and fall with thegentle breathings of a sleeping child.
I hesitated in some astonishment; but again the sharp command hissedfrom her softly parted lips,--
"Sing, little fool!--Melinza passes!"
I touched the lute with shaking fingers and lifted my trembling voice.The notes stuck in my throat and came forth huskily at first; but then Ithought on my dear love in his hateful prison, and I sung as I had neversung before.
Above the gray wall I saw Don Pedro's plumed hat passing by. He reachedthe gate and halted, gazing in with eager eyes. His quick glancecompassed the green nook, passed over the sleeping figure, and fixeditself upon my face.
The song died away; I leaned forward, smiling, and laid a warning fingeron my lip.
He made me a bow so courtly that the feather in his laced hat swept theground.
"So, senorita, the caged bird can sing?"
"When her jailer wills it so, Don Pedro," I said softly, and smiled--andsighed--and gave a half-fearful glance over my shoulder; then added, ina lower whisper: "And when she wills otherwise, I must be silent."
"How, would she even keep a lock upon your lips?"
"Upon my lips--and my eyes also. Indeed, my very brows are under herjurisdiction, and are oft constrained to frown, against their will!"
"So!" he exclaimed; and I saw a sweet doubt creep over his face. "Must Iplace to her account the many frowns you have bestowed on me?"
"_Si, senor_--and add to those some others that would not be coerced."
The fire in his black eyes frightened me not a little as he whispered:
"If that be true, then grant me the rose in your bosom, lady!"
I lifted a trembling hand to the flower, and shot a frightened glance atthe senora's quivering lashes.
"Oh! I dare not!" I murmured, and let my hand fall against the lute uponmy knee. The jangling strings roused the pretended sleeper from herdreams.
She half rose, and, seizing a pillow from her couch, hurled it at me,saying angrily: "Here is for such awkwardness!"
The soft missile failed of its proper mark; but found another in thegreen parrot, who was dangling, head downward, from his perch; and therewas an angry squawk from the insulted bird.
I threw a timorous glance toward the gateway, motioning the intruderaway. He would have lingered, being to all appearances greatly angeredat the discourteous treatment of my lady warder; but prudence prevailed,and he fell back out of sight, with a hand upon his heart, protestingdumbly.
* * * * *
The comedy had just begun. Now it must be played through to the end.
It is a strange thing to see the zest with which my gentle jailerprepares, each day, an ambush for the unwary foe, and how he alwaysfalls into the trap--to be assailed by me with smiles, and softcomplaints, piteous appeals for sympathy, and shy admissions of mytender friendship; which are always cut short by some well-contrivedinterruption or the sudden appearance of Dona Orosia on the scene.Though only a week has passed, already Don Pedro would take oath that Ilove him well.
Early this morning I heard him underneath my window; and I was rightglad of the chance to smile on him from behind the protecting bars. Thismeeting had not been of Dona Orosia's contriving, so I thought I woulduse it for my own ends.
I vowed to him that I was unhappy--which was true. I protested that Iwas sick with longing for freedom--and that, too, was no lie. But tothat I added a whole tissue of falsehood, declaring that I had neverdrawn a free breath since I came into the world; that my uncle had beena tyrant, and the man to whom he had betrothed me was jealous andexacting; that I had been brought across the seas against my will; andthat I dreaded the hardships of life in this new country. I said I hadno wish to rejoin the English settlers, and I denied, with tears, anypartiality for my dear love. Heaven forgive me! but I professed I lovedDon Pedro better than any man I had ever seen, and I entreated him totake me away from these barbarous shores.
I had not thought that I could move him, yet, strange to say, the manseemed touched. I wondered as I listened to him, for I had thought himall bad, and deemed his passion but a passing fancy. He was speaking nowof Habana, a city of some refinement, where, as his wife, I would enjoythe companionship of other ladies of my own station.
"I'd never suffer thee to live here, my fairest lady, where yon darkdevil of a woman could vent her spite on thee!" he whispered softly; andmy conscience smote me, for I was playing with a man's heart, of fleshand blood.
But I bethought me, if there was in truth any good in that heart, Iwould dare appeal to it; for I mistrusted that at any time Dona Orosiawould break her promised word.
"Truly, Don Pedro, I would go gladly, for I hate the very sight of thesewalls; but--if you love me--I would crave of your graciousness anotherboon. Set free the English gentleman who was my promised husband, andsend him, with the other prisoners, back to his friends."
There was no answer, and I feared I had overstepped the mark; but Idared further.
"Senor de Melinza," I said, "it is true that I come of a race for whichyou have no love, and that I hold a creed which you condemn;nevertheless it must be remembered that we have our own code ofchivalry, and there have lived and died in England as brave knights andtrue as even your valiant Cid. I would not have the man I am to wedguilty of an unknightly act. Therefore be generous. You have beenmutually wounded; but it was in fair duello,"--this I said feigningignorance of the coward blow that so nearly reached my dear love'sheart,--"and now, Don Pedro, it would be the more honourable to set freethe countryman of your promised bride and send him in safety to hisfriends."
"Senorita," said the Spaniard,--and there was a cloud upon his brow,--"Iwould you had asked me any boon but this. Nevertheless I give you myknightly word that the man shall go, and go unharmed."
"I thank you, Don Pedro," I said, and fought down the cry of joy thatstruggled to my lips. Then, because I could find no other words, andfeared to fail in the part I had to play, I took Dame Barbara's scissorsand cut off a long lock of my yellow hair, bound it with riband, andthrew it down to him as guerdon for the favour he had granted me.
This noon, when I joined the Governor's wife as usual under thevine-hung balcony, I boasted cheerfully of the promise I had wrung fromMelinza; and she demanded at once to hear all that had passed betweenus,--then called me a fool for my pains!
"Little marplot! Had you shown less concern for the fate of yourEnglishman, it would have been vastly better. You do but cast obstaclesin my way. There is nothing for me to do now but hotly to oppose hisleaving! If needs must I will pretend a liking for the man myself, andvow to hold him as my guest yet a while longer, for the sake of hispretty wit and his gallant bearing,--any device to throw dust in theireyes, so that we seem not to be of the same minds and putting up theselfsame plea. Oh! little saint with the blue eyes, your _metier_ is notdiplomacy!"
"In sooth, senora, till you first taught me to dissemble I wasunlessoned in the art."
She laughed then, and said that when I had less faith in others I couldmore easily deceive.
"If the little Margarita believed Melinza's pretty fable about Habana,and the excellent company there whi
ch his _wife_ would enjoy, 'tis nowonder that she made a tangle of her own little web."
"But Dona Orosia, think you he would deal unfairly with me? His wordsrang so true--even a bad man may love honestly! And if I trifle with theone saving virtue in his heart, will it not be a grievous sin?"
The mocking smile died out of the Spaniard's eyes and left themfathomless and sombre.
I felt as one who--looking into an open window, and seeing the light ofa taper glancing and flickering within--draws back abashed, whensuddenly the flame is quenched, and only the hollow dark stares back athis blinded gaze.
"If he loves you," she said slowly, "it is but as he has loved before,more times than one. He would skim the cream of passion, brush the dewfrom the flower, crush the first sweetness from the myrtle-blooms,--andleave the rest. You child, what do you know of men? It is only theunattainable that is worth striving for. There is much of the brutebeast in their passions. Did you mark, the other day, how the dead houndturned a scornful nozzle to the first sweet morsel that I pressed on hisacceptance? But afterward, the fear of losing it made him eager to theleaping-point. Just so I shall trick his master--shall let him see thee,_almost_ grasp and taste; then, when the moment of mad longing comes,I'll stab him with the final loss of thee! Only so can I arouse a desirethat will outlive a day; for I know men's hearts to the core, thoublue-eyed babe!"
"Senora," I cried, stung by her scornful words, "I cannot say I knowmen's hearts; but I do know the heart of one true gentleman; and Ibelieve, when he had won from me the betrothal kiss, I was not lessdesirable in his eyes!"
"So you believe," she said, and shook her head. "_Bueno_, go onbelieving--while you can. Woman's faith in man's fealty lives just solong----" and she bent forward from her couch, plucked a fragile blossomfrom the swaying vines, and cast it under foot.
I would have spoken again of my trust in the leal true heart thattrusted me; but I saw the trembling of the laces on her bosom, I saw thedark eyes growing more angerful, and a slow crimson rising in the richcheek. She was always "studying her revenge,"--this beautiful, unhappywoman, "keeping her wounds green which otherwise might heal and dowell."
As I watched her a great pity overcame me, so that I held my peace.