CHAPTER XV
DISCORD CONTINUES TO GROW UNTIL WAR IS DECLARED
Every one looked toward the door, at which appeared the imposing figureof the Centaur, serious-looking and frowning; embarrassed by his anxietyto salute the company politely; savagely handsome, but disfigured by theviolence which he did himself in smiling civilly and treading softly andholding his herculean arms in a correct posture.
"Come in, Senor Ramos," said Pepe Rey.
"No, no!" objected Dona Perfecta. "What he has to say to you is anabsurdity."
"Let him say it."
"I ought not to allow such ridiculous questions to be discussed in myhouse."
"What is Senor Ramos' business with me?"
Caballuco uttered a few words.
"Enough, enough!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta. "Don't trouble my nephew anymore. Pepe, don't mind this simpleton. Do you wish me to tell you thecause of the great Caballuco's anger?" she said, turning to the others.
"Anger? I think I can imagine," said the Penitentiary, leaning back inhis chair and laughing with boisterous hilarity.
"I wanted to say to Senor Don Jose--" growled the formidable horseman.
"Hold your tongue, man, for Heaven's sake! And don't tire us any morewith that nonsense."
"Senor Caballuco," said the canon, "it is not to be wondered at thatgentlemen from the capital should cut out the rough riders of thissavage country."
"In two words, Pepe, the question is this: Caballuco is--"
She could not go on for laughing.
"Is--I don't know just what," said Don Inocencio, "of one of the Troyagirls, of Mariquita Juana, if I am not mistaken."
"And he is jealous! After his horse, the first thing in creation for himis Mariquilla Troya."
"A pretty insinuation that!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta. "Poor Cristobal!Did you suppose that a person like my nephew--let us hear, what were yougoing to say to him? Speak."
"Senor Don Jose and I will talk together presently," responded the bravoof the town brusquely.
And without another word he left the room.
Shortly afterward Pepe Rey left the dining-room to retire to hisown room. In the hall he found himself face to face with his Trojanantagonist, and he could not repress a smile at the sight of the fierceand gloomy countenance of the offended lover.
"A word with you," said the latter, planting himself insolently in frontof the engineer. "Do you know who I am?"
As he spoke he laid his heavy hand on the young man's shoulder withsuch insolent familiarity that the latter, incensed, flung him off withviolence, saying:
"It is not necessary to crush one to say that."
The bravo, somewhat disconcerted, recovered himself in a moment, andlooking at Rey with provoking boldness, repeated his refrain:
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yes; I know now that you are a brute."
He pushed the bully roughly aside and went into his room. As traced onthe excited brain of our unfortunate friend at this moment, his plan ofaction might be summed up briefly and definitely as follows: To breakCaballuco's head without loss of time; then to take leave of his aunt insevere but polite words which should reach her soul; to bid a cold adieuto the canon and give an embrace to the inoffensive Don Cayetano;to administer a thrashing to Uncle Licurgo, by way of winding up theentertainment, and leave Orbajosa that very night, shaking the dust fromhis shoes at the city gates.
But in the midst of all these mortifications and persecutions theunfortunate young man had not ceased to think of another unhappy being,whom he believed to be in a situation even more painful and distressingthan his own. One of the maid-servants followed the engineer into hisroom.
"Did you give her my message?" he asked.
"Yes, senor, and she gave me this."
Rey took from the girl's hand a fragment of a newspaper, on the marginof which he read these words:
"They say you are going away. I shall die if you do."
When he returned to the dining-room Uncle Licurgo looked in at the doorand asked:
"At what hour do you want the horse?"
"At no hour," answered Rey quickly.
"Then you are not going to-night?" said Dona Perfecta. "Well, it isbetter to wait until to-morrow."
"I am not going to-morrow, either."
"When are you going, then?"
"We will see presently," said the young man coldly, looking at his auntwith imperturbable calmness. "For the present I do not intend to goaway."
His eyes flashed forth a fierce challenge.
Dona Perfecta turned first red, then pale. She looked at the canon, whohad taken off his gold spectacles to wipe them, and then fixed hereyes successively on each of the other persons in the room, includingCaballuco, who, entering shortly before, had seated himself on theedge of a chair. Dona Perfecta looked at them as a general looks athis trusty body-guard. Then she studied the thoughtful and serenecountenance of her nephew--of that enemy, who, by a strategic movement,suddenly reappeared before her when she believed him to be in shamefulflight.
Alas! Bloodshed, ruin, and desolation! A great battle was about to befought.