The Doomswoman: An Historical Romance of Old California

  XXIII.

  We went to a bull-fight that day, danced that night, meriendaed anddanced again; a siesta in the afternoon, a few hours' sleep in thenight, refreshing us all. Chonita, alone, looked pale, but I knew thather pallor was not due to weariness. And I knew that she was beginningto fear Estenega; the time was almost come when she would fear herselfmore. Estenega had several talks apart with her. He managed it withoutany apparent maneuvering; but he always had the devil's methods.Valencia avenged herself by flirting desperately with Reinaldo, andPrudencia's honeymoon was seasoned with gall.

  On Saturday night Chonita stole from her guests, donned a black gownand reboso, and, attended by two Indian servants, went up to theMission to confession. As she left the church a half-hour later, andcame down the steps, Estenega rose from a bench beneath the arches ofthe corridor and joined her.

  "How did you know that I came?" she asked; and it was not the starsthat lit her face.

  "You do little that I do not know. Have you been to confession?"

  "Yes."

  They walked slowly down the valley.

  "And you forgave and were forgiven?"

  "Yes. Ay! but my penance is heavy!"

  "But when it is done you will be at rest, I suppose."

  "Oh, I hope! I hope!"

  "Have you begun to realize that your Church cannot satisfy you?"

  "No! I will not say that."

  "But you know it. Your intelligence has opened a window somewhere andthe truth has crept in."

  "Do not take my religion from me, senor!" Her eyes and voice appealedto him, and he accepted her first confession of weakness with a throbof exulting tenderness.

  "My love!" he said, "I would give you more than I took from you."

  "No! never!--Even if we were not enemies, and I had not made thatterrible vow, my religion has been all in all to me. Just now I havemany things that torment me; and I have asked so little of religionbefore--my life has been so calm--that now I hardly know how to askfor so much more. I shall learn. Leave me in peace."

  "Do you want me to go?" he asked. "If you did,--if I troubled you bystaying here,--I believe I would go. Only I know it would do no good:I should come back."

  "No! no! I do not want you to go. I should feel--I will admit toyou--like a house without its foundation. And yet sometimes, I praythat you will go. Ay! I do not like life. I used to have pride in myintelligence. Where is my pride now? What good has the wisdom in mybooks done me, when I confess my dependence upon a man, and thatman my enemy--and the acquaintance of a few weeks?" She was speakingincoherently, and Estenega chafed at the restraint of the servants soclose behind them. "Tell me," she exclaimed, "what is it in you that Iwant?--that I need? It is something that belongs to me. Give it to me,and go away."

  "Chonita, I give it to you gladly, God knows. But you must take me,too. You want in me what is akin to you and what you will find nowhereelse. But I cannot tear my soul out of my body. You must take both orneither."

  "Ay! I cannot! You know that I cannot!

  "I ignore your reasons."

  "But I do not."

  "You shall, my beloved. Or if you do not ignore you shall forgetthem."

  "When I am dead--would that I were!" She was excited and trembling.The confession had been an ordeal, and Estenega was nevertranquillizing. She wished to cling to him, but was still mistressof herself. He divined her impulse, and drew her arm through his andacross his breast. He opened her hand and pressed his lips to thepalm. Then he bent his face above hers. She was trembling violently;her face was wild and white. His own was ashen, and the heart beneathher arm beat rapidly.

  "I love you devotedly," he said. "You believe that, Chonita?"

  "Ah! Mother of God! do not! I cannot listen."

  "But you shall listen. Throw off your superstitions and come to me.Keep the part of your religion that is not superstition; I would bethe last to take it from you; but I will not permit its petty dogmasto stand between us. As for your traditions, you have not even theexcuse of filial duty; your father would not forbid you to become mywife. And I love you very earnestly and passionately. Just how much, Imight convey to you if we were alone."

  He was obliged to exercise great self-restraint, but there was nomistaking his seriousness. When such scientific triflers do find awoman worth loving, they are too deeply sensible of the fact not tobe stirred to their depths; and their depths are apt to be in largedisproportion to the lightness of their ordinary mood. "Come to me,"he continued. "I need you; and I will be as tender and thoughtfula husband as I will be ardent as a lover. You love me: don't blindyourself any longer. Do you picture, in a life of solitude and colddevotion to phantoms, any happiness equal to what you would find herein my arms?"

  "Oh, hush! hush! You could make me do what you wished, I have no will.I feel no longer myself. What is this terrible power?"

  "It is the magnetism of love; that is all. I am not exercising anydiabolical power over you. Listen: I will not trouble you any morenow. I am obliged to go to Los Angeles the day after to-morrow, and onmy way back to Monterey--in about two weeks--I shall come here again.Then we will talk together; but I warn you, I will accept only oneanswer. You are mine, and I shall have you."

  They reached Casa Grande a moment later, and she escaped from him andran to her room. But she dared not remain alone. Hastily changing herblack gown for the first her hand touched,--it happened to be vividred and made her look as white as wax,--she returned to the sala;not to dance even the square contradanza, but to stand surrounded byworshiping caballeros with curling hair tied with gay ribbons, andjewels in their laces. Valencia regarded her with a bitter jealousythat was rising from red heat to white. How dared a woman with hair ofgold wear the color of the brunette? It was a theft. It was the lastindignity. And once more she chained Reinaldo, in default of Estenega,to her side. And deep in Prudencia's heart wove a scheme of vengeance;the loom and warp had been presented unwittingly by her chivalrousfather-in-law.

  Estenega remained in the sala a few moments after Chonita'sreappearance, then left the house and wandered through the booth inthe court, where the people were dancing and singing and eating andgambling as if with the morrow an eternal Lent would come, and thencethrough the silent town to the pleasure-grounds of Casa Grande, whichlay about half a mile from the house. He had been there but a shortwhile when he heard a rustle, a light footfall; and, turning, he sawChonita, unattended, her bare neck and gold hair gleaming against thedark, her train dragging. She was advancing swiftly toward him. Hispulses bounded, and he sprang toward her, his arms outstretched; butshe waved him back.

  "Have mercy," she said. "I am alone. I brought no one, because I havethat to tell you which no one else must hear."

  He stepped back and looked at the ground.

  "Listen," she said. "I could not wait until to-morrow, because amoment lost might mean--might mean the ruin of your career, and yousay your envoy has not gone yet. Just now--I will tell you the otherfirst. Mother of God! that I should betray my brother to my enemy! Butit seems to me right, because you placed your confidence in me, andI should feel that I betrayed you if I did not warn you. I do notknow--oh, Mary!--I do not know--but this seems to me right. The othernight my brother came to me and asked me--ay! do not look at me--tomarry you, that you would balk his ambition no further. He wishes togo as diputado to Mexico, and he knows that you will not let him. Ithought my brain would crack,--an Iturbi y Moncada!--I made him noanswer,--there was no answer to a demand like that,--and he went fromme in a fury, vowing vengeance upon you. To-night, a few momentsago, he whispered to me that he knew of your plans, your intentionsregarding the Americans: he had overheard a conversation between youand Alvarado. He says that he will send letters to Mexico to-morrow,warning the government against you. Then their suspicions will beroused, and they will inquire--Ay, Mary!"

  Estenega brought his teeth together. "God!" he exclaimed.

  She saw that he had forgotten her. She turned and went back moreswiftly than she had co
me.

  Estenega was a man whose resources never failed him. He returned tothe house and asked Reinaldo to smoke a cigarito and drink a bottle ofwine in his room. Then, without a promise or a compromising word, heso flattered that shallow youth, so allured his ambition and pamperedhis vanity and watered his hopes, that fear and hatred wondered attheir existence, closed their eyes, and went to sleep. Reinaldopoured forth his aspirations, which under the influence of thetruth-provoking vine proved to be an honest yearning for the pleasuresof Mexico. As he rose to go he threw his arm about Estenega's neck.

  "Ay! my friend! my friend!" he cried, "thou art all-powerful. Thoualone canst give me what I want."

  "Why did you never ask me for what you wanted?" asked Estenega. Andhe thought, "If it were not for Her, you would be on your way to LosAngeles to-night under charge of high treason. I would not have takenthis much trouble with you."