For the Soul of Rafael Part 12

"You are drunk; that is what ails you, Rafael," said his friend, bluntly. "You think that you are in love with that woman, but you are only drunk."

"Drunk--I? And you call her--call the ill.u.s.trious lady who is a friend of mine, 'that woman!' Senor, there are two swords on the wall. You take your choice--you--"

Fernando tried to avoid him, but he wrenched the sword from the wall and lunged at him wickedly.

But for a girl who shrieked and rushed from a shadowy doorway, and flung herself on the arm of Rafael, it would have gone ill with Fernando.

"Rafael mio!" she cried, clinging to him, "for the love of G.o.d!"

"Marta!" he cried, and dropped the weapon. "I--did I not tell you--"

He broke off vaguely, and avoided Fernando's eyes; that young man laughed good-naturedly.

"Another ill.u.s.trious friend whose husband goes on long voyages!" he said, lightly. "I leave you, my friend, until you are sober. Senorita, adios."

Rafael stared moodily at the girl. She was a pretty bit of bronze flesh with pa.s.sionate eyes.

"I told you to stay on the ranch," he said at last; but she broke into tears and caught his hands.

"I could not! They all know--the old woman and the priest. They thought I was dying, and he came and I had to tell him the name of the child's father; and--and when my own father comes back from the herding he will beat me, and I will not stay! I will not! He is not a fine gentleman, Rafael; he is only a herder who was a soldier in Mexico. Fine words would not count with him, unless it would be words before the priest, and you promised--"

"Jesus, Maria, and Joseph!" burst out Rafael. "What an hour to come with a list of a man's promises! I've been up all night, and I'd fight with the saints if they came my way. Go, Marta; I will tell Antonio to make a home for you away from the crazy herder. I--I am very busy; I start south in an hour."

"But, Rafael--"

"Well--well?"

"They say you are to marry an ill.u.s.trious senorita--that you--"

"They say a lot there is no sense in saying!" he burst out angrily. "If you had stayed on the ranch, you would not have heard their lies or--"

"Ai! I am happy that it is not true. But that one lady--whose hands you kissed--Rafael--"

"Oh, for the love of G.o.d, go!" he said. "You women drive a man mad!

You--"

Fernando rushed in, interrupting him:

"Rafael! Your mother--she is here!"

"My mother?"

"On the hill--her carriage--a man brings the news."

"d.a.m.nation! Coming here--now? And my head--Yes, it's true, Fernando; I was drunk. Help me to think! Make them clear all this away!" and he pointed to the tables and the dice and the cards on the floor. "Por Dios, how my head swims! And my mother is no fool--she will see! Think, Fernando! Help me to plan something. And you, Marta, let yourself not be seen!"

The frightened girl was only too glad to slip away, while the rest of the group stripped the rooms of evidences of the night's orgy.

"Mount a horse and ride to the beach," decided Fernando. "You will be gone on business, to see about--eh--to see if the vessel for hides has come in. Make yourself decent, and I will send a messenger after you.

Don't be too easily found--you are likely to be drunker in an hour than you are now."

"Curse the brandy! And Bryton was to come back to see me about--oh, G.o.d knows what! But don't let my mother see him--an accursed heretic Americano, you know! Dios! If I could only sleep for an hour!"

Fernando fairly pushed him out at the door.

"Take a sea bath; drink black coffee; get out of sight while I receive the bride!"

Then, after the door was closed on the groom-elect, he took a quick survey of the room.

"That is right, open all the windows. Some one cut lilies--the white ones--quick! Hide this fan for Merced. Light those candles on the Virgin's shrine, and put the lilies there and on the table. Whose pipe is this under the edge of our lady's lace robe? It smells vilely--take it away! Where is the key of the chest of the _donas_? Here it is in the chest, and that is unlocked--only Rafael could do that. Let us hope he has not let Merced try on the wedding-dress! Are there no more flowers?

Get some for the room of the senorita. Tell some one to make French coffee. Manuel, put out the light."

Dolores and Madalena ran through the open door, breathless.

"Fernando, she is here--the Senora Arteaga, and--"

"Already! Aunt Teresa told us to run and help; she will come also. Don Rafael?"

"Has ridden to the harbor."

"More likely to bed," remarked Madalena, skeptically.

"Senorita!"

"Sh--h!" whispered Dolores, with lifted hand. "The carriage; they are in the plaza!"

She rushed out, and the others followed. Teresa was there greeting Dona Luisa; but all fell suddenly silent as they noticed the gray-white of the old face, and the frail figure as she descended from the carriage with the help of Fernando Mendez and Ana--his cousin's widow.

Fernando cast one glance at the girl who sat her horse and glanced over their heads for the face she did not see.

A wizened old Indian woman alighted from a cart and came to her and touched her foot on the stirrup.

"It is your new land, little mistress," she said, in a tongue not understood by the others, "the land of your handsome lover."

The girl looked again across the many faces gathering in the plaza, and then accepted the help of Don Antonio to alight.

"But he is not here, Polonia--the handsome lover," she returned, and then walked past all the others and slipped her hand under the arm of Dona Luisa.

"A thousand welcomes, senora," said Fernando, at the portal. "The town will rejoice to-day."

"One welcome I had a right to expect at this door," the old lady answered, "and he is not here."

"He will be heart-broken. He did not think you had yet reached San Diego. To-day he was to start for there. Will it please you to have this seat?"

"Not yet," she said. "Raquelita!"

Raquel Estevan gently disengaged her other hand from Dolores, and the frail old woman led her to the little shrine of the Virgin, where the candles glimmered. The others halted at the door, but Fernando and Dolores and Ana knelt also as the old woman and the girl from Mexico clasped hands and bent heads before the statue in the niche.

The old woman rose first and kissed the girl's forehead.