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diff --git a/25726-8.txt b/25726-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f13c18 --- /dev/null +++ b/25726-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2543 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Pretty Sister Of José, by Frances Hodgson Burnett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pretty Sister Of José + 1889 + +Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett + +Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25726] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRETTY SISTER OF JOSÉ *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE PRETTY SISTER OF JOSÉ + +By Frances Hodgson Burnett + +Charles Scribner's Sons - 1889 + + + + +THE PRETTY SISTER OF JOSÉ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +It had taken him a long time, and it had cost him--José--much hard +labor, to prepare for his aged grandmother and Pepita the tiny home +outside Madrid, to which he at last brought them in great triumph one +hot summer's day, when the very vine-leaves and orange-trees themselves +were dusty. It had been a great undertaking for him in the first +place, for he was a slow fellow--José; slow as he was dull and kind and +faithful to Pepita and the grandmother. He had a body as big as an ox, +and a heart as big as his body, but he was slow and dull in everything +but one thing--that was his carpenter work. He was well enough at that, +and more than well enough, for he had always had a fancy and a knack for +it from the time when as a boy he had worked in his uncle's vineyards +and tilled his fields and fed his beasts. His uncle had been counted a +rich man among his neighbors, but when his sister and her husband died +and left the two children, José and Pepita, penniless, and with no +protector save himself and their grandmother, already an old woman, it +was upon the grandmother that the burden fell, for he did nothing for +them except to give them, grudgingly now and then, a few poor vegetables +or a little fallen fruit. It is true that when José was old enough to +labor in the fields he gave him work to do, but he paid him ill and +treated him ill also, giving him poor food and harsh words, and often +enough blows the poor lad did not deserve. So it came about that while +he was at his work José fell into the way of planning to escape from all +this, and make another home for himself and his pretty child-sister +and the old woman. He knew there was only one way to do it: if he could +carry his one gift where it would be of more use to him than it could +possibly be in a poor small village; if he could carry it to a market +where there were more people and where work was better paid for. Where +the king and queen were, of course, there must be more money, and one +could find more to do and live better. It was Padre Alejandro, the +village priest, who had suggested this to him first. He was a kind, +jovial old fellow, the padre, and had seen something of the world, too, +long ago, which was perhaps why he was never very hard upon a simple +sinner who went to confession, and could give a bit of unecclesiastical +advice now and then. He had always been kind to José, and as Pepita had +grown prettier and prettier every day, he had often spoken of her to old +Jovita, and said she should be well taught and taken care of, and once +even--when she had come into the house with a basket of grapes on her +little head, rose-flushed with the hot day, her black hair curling +in moist silken rings on her forehead--he had been betrayed into the +worldly remark that such pretty young things ought to have something +brighter to look forward to than hard work and scant fare, which made +them old before their time, and left them nothing to look back upon. +But he only said it to Jovita, and Jovita only stared a little, it never +having occurred to her that there was anything much in the world but +hard labor and poverty. And what difference did it make that one was +pretty, except that it became more probable that some gay, lazy fellow +would pretend to fall in love with one, and then after marriage leave +one all the work to do and a houseful of hungry children to feed? She +had seen that often enough. Had it not been so with Pepita's mother, who +died at twenty-five almost an old woman, worn out with trouble and hard +usage? + +But afterward, when Padre Alejandro saw José, he spoke of Pepita to him +also, though only as if incidentally among other things. + +"She should marry some good fellow who could take care of her," he said. +"If you go to Madrid it will also be better for her." + +And so the end of it all was that after much slow planning and many +hopes and fears, and more than one disappointment, there came a day when +the uncle was thrown into a violent rage by losing his best and most +patient worker, and the poor cottage stood empty, and José and Pepita +and Jovita found themselves in a new world. + +What a new world it seemed to them all! Through the help of Padre +Alejandro and an old friend of his, José had work bringing him pay which +appeared absolute wealth to him. The cottage, with its good walls and +roof, its neat rooms and garden, being compared with the mere hut they +had left behind, seemed a palace. For the first few days, indeed, Jovita +was scarce at ease; to feel no necessity for heavy labor, to have food +enough, to be so comfortable, seemed unnatural, as if it might finally +bring disaster. But it was not so with Pepita. All the joy of youth, all +its delights and expectations filled her heart. To be so near the great, +grand city, to look forward to seeing all its splendors, to walk in its +streets, to share in the amusements she had heard of--this was rapture. +If she had been pretty before, she became now ten times prettier; her +lovely eyes grew larger with laughter and wonder and joy; her light +feet almost danced; her color was like that of a damask rose. Each day +brought new innocent happiness to her. When José came home from his work +at night, she sat by his side and asked him a thousand questions. Had he +seen the palace--had he seen the king or the queen--what were the people +doing--were the public gardens beautiful? + +[Illustration: And then she would take the guitar 010] + +And then she would take the guitar, which had belonged to her gay father +in his gayest days, and sit out in the little garden, among the vines +and lemon-trees and oleanders, and play and sing one song after another, +while José smoked and rested, and wondered at and delighted in her. It +was she who had inherited all her father's gayety and spirit. José had +none of them, and, being slow and simple, had always found her a wonder +and a strange pleasure. She had, indeed, been the one bright thing in +his life, and even her wilfulness had a charm for him. He always gave +way to it and was content. Had she not even once defied the uncle when +no one else would have dared to do it? holding her little head up and +confronting him in such a burst of pretty rage that the old curmudgeon +had been quite quelled for once in his life, and had ever afterward +treated her with a kind of respect, even saying to a neighbor that "the +lad was a fool, but the little devil had something in her, after all." + +In all his plannings it was Pepita José had thought of first. Madrid +to him was only a sort of setting for Pepita; the clean, comfortable +cottage a home for Pepita; the roses and lemon blossoms she would wear +in her hair; under the fine grape-vines she would sit in the evening and +play on her guitar. His wages would give her comfort and buy her pretty +simple dresses. And then every one would see her beauty, and when she +went to mass, or with himself and Jovita to the Prado or the Paseo de +la Virgen del Puerto, people would look at her and tell each other +how pretty she was, and all this would end in time in a good marriage +perhaps. And she would be loved by some nice fellow, and have a home +of her own, and be as happy as the day was long. There was only +one obstacle in the way of this excellent plan; it was only a small +obstacle, but--it was Pepita herself! Singularly enough, Pepita had a +fixed antipathy to marriage. She had early announced her intention of +remaining unmarried, and those young men who in her native village +had desired to make love to her had been treated with disapproval +and disdain. Knowing as little of love as a young bird unfledged, her +coldness was full of innocent cruelty. She made no effort to soften any +situation. She was willing to dance and laugh and sing, but when she +found herself confronting lover-like tremors and emotion, she was +unsparing candor itself. + +"Why should I listen to you?" she had said more than once. "I do not +love you. You do not please me. When you wish to marry me, I hate you. +Go away, and speak to some one else." + +"I will never marry any one," she said to José. "I will stay with you +and be happy. Girls who marry grow ugly and are wretched. Their husbands +do not love them after they are married. They must work and slave and +take care of the house and the children. Look at Tessa! Her husband used +to be wild about her. She could make him pale with misery if she turned +away from him; he used to follow her about everywhere. Now he makes eyes +at Juanita, and beats Tessa if she complains. And don't we both remember +how it was with our mother? I will never love any one, and never be +married. Let them love me if they are so stupid, but I will be left +alone. I care nothing for any of them." + +The truth is that José knew it was what she remembered of her mother's +unhappiness and what Jovita had told her, which was the foundation of +all this. Did he not remember it himself, and remember, with a shudder, +those first miserable years of their childhood--the great, beautiful, +wretched eyes of their mother, their gay, handsome father, and his +careless cruelty and frequent brutality? Had not Pepita and himself +clung together hidden in the loft at night, listening to their mother's +sobs, and often to the sound of blows and curses rained down upon her +because she was no longer a beauty, and there were beauties who had +smiles to bestow on handsome fellows who were free, and even upon those +who were not? It was enough to irritate any handsome fellow--this one +had thought--to come home to a squalid place after enjoyment, and +be forced to face poverty and children and a haggard wife with large +staring eyes, red with weeping. Yes, Pepita and José remembered all +this, and upon Pepita's character it had left curious traces. Young as +she was, she had awakened quite grand passions in more than one heart, +and on two or three occasions the suitors had been of far better fortune +than herself--one of them, indeed, being the only son of a rich farmer, +who might have chosen a wife of much greater importance than this +pretty, scornful child, and whose family rebelled bitterly against +his folly, and at last sent him away to Seville, but not before Pepita +herself had coolly trodden him under her small feet. + +"I like you less than any of them," she said, fixing her great, direct +eyes upon him when he revealed his frenzy. "Go and marry that girl your +father chose for you--if she will have you. They have no need to be +afraid and speak ill of me. I don't want you. I can't bear to have you +stand near me." + +To José it never occurred to complain of her, but Jovita's sense of +worldly advantage was outraged at this time, and she did not hesitate to +express herself with much freedom and grumbling. + +"God knows, I want no haste," she said; "but this is a chance for any +girl. And see what a fool she is. But that is as it always happens. +There will come along some worthless fellow, and she will be fooled like +the rest, and be ready enough to run after him." + +"I!" said Pepita, who stood in the doorway. "I!" And she opened her dark +eyes in genuine anger and amazement. + +"Yes, you," answered Jovita. "And you will be worse than any of them. +Girls who think themselves too good to be spoken to are always easiest +to coax when they find their match. Let him come, and you'll drop like a +ripe grape." + +"He will never come," said Pepita. "Never!" And there was not a shade of +doubt in her look--nothing but cold indignation at Jovita's ill-humor. +"I am not afraid of men. They are all stupid. They think they can have +anything they want, and they can have nothing. They have to ask, and it +is the girls who can say 'No;' and then they are miserable, and beg and +beg until one detests them. If any one said 'No' to me, I would not let +them see it hurt me. They should think I did not care." + +"You will not always say 'No,'" grumbled Jovita. "Wait till the day for +'Yes' comes. You'll say it fast enough. That's the way with women." + +A bewitching little smile slowly curved Pepita's lips and crept into her +eyes. + +"I am not a woman," she said, looking out at the sun-warmed vineyards. +"He said so himself. Felipe said, 'You are not a woman; you are a witch, +and no one can touch your heart or conquer you.' I will be a witch." + +Secretly she had liked those words better than any of the adoring +praises she had heard before. She liked the suggestion that she was +invincible and safe from all danger--to be a witch--to be free from all +this disastrous folly--to be unconquerable. Yes, that pleased her. It +was not her fault that they would fall in love with her. What did she do +to them? Nothing. She never allowed them to come near her or touch +her; she never gave them tender glances or words. She laughed and was +Pepita--that was all. Then it was no fault of hers. + +And yet her little heart was warm enough. She loved José passionately; +she loved Jo-vita; she loved little children and animals, and they +loved her in return; old men and women adored her because of her simple, +almost childish kindness and her readiness to help those who needed her +young strength and bright spirit. It was only men who made love who were +shown no mercy. She did not know that they needed mercy. She did not +understand--that was all. It was as José had known it would be. When on +the first holiday be took her to the public gardens with Jovita, every +one who passed them gave her a second look; many turned to watch her; +certainly there was not a man who did not glance over his shoulder at +the bewitching girlish figure with the small round waist, at the piquant +radiant face, at the well-carried little head with the red rose blooming +in its cloud of soft black hair. + +[Illustration: Took her to the public gardens 035] + +It was not long before two or three who were José's fellow-workmen +sought him out and greeted him with great warmth. They had, it appeared, +a great deal to say and many attentions to lavish upon him. Such a fine +fellow, this José--such a good fellow--such a workman as was seldom seen +in Madrid. And what a fine day for pleasure. And the Paseo de la Virgen +del Puerto--there never were such gardens for sport. And all the time +each one looked at Pepita, and lucky indeed was the man with mother and +sisters to help him to make friends. And never had old Jovita met with +such civilities, and encountered such deference. Pepita had the joy of a +young bird in its first flight. The air of gayety enlivening everything, +the people in their holiday clothes, the blue sky, the sunshine, the +cheap simple pleasures of the day, were intoxicating delights to her. +She made friends with the girls and their parents, and was even gracious +to the young men who hung about José, and somehow seemed to find his +neighborhood more attractive than any other. It was from one of these +young men (his name was Manuel) she first heard of Sebastiano--the gay, +the wonderful, the renowned Sebastiano. He had asked her, this Manuel, +if she was going to the Plaza de Toros to see the bull-fight the +following week, and when she said she did not know--that she had never +seen a bull-fight--he found a great deal to say. He described the +wonders of the great bull ring, where twelve thousand people could be +accommodated, and where grand and beautiful ladies richly dressed +and surrounded by their lovers and husbands uttered cries of joy and +excitement as the fight became more dangerous, and both bulls and +toreadors showed greater courage and fire; he described the costumes, +the music, the picadors dashing in upon their horses; the banderilleros +with their darts and ribbons; the matador with his reckless daring, +his nerves and muscles of steel, and his lightning leaps. And then he +described Sebastiano. Never before, it appeared from his enthusiasm, +had Madrid known such a matador as Sebastiano. Never one so handsome, +so dashing, so universally adored. When he appeared in the ring, what a +roar of applause went up. When he made his proud bow to the president, +and said, "I go to slay this bull for the honor of the people of Madrid +and the most excellent president of this tourney," and threw his hat +away and moved forward, waving his scarlet cloak, what excitement +there was awakened. Songs were sung about him in the streets, fans were +ornamented with pictures of his daring deeds, there were stories of +great ladies who had wept their eyes out for love of him, and as to the +women of his own class, there was not a girl in Madrid who did not dream +of him. + +"Why?" said Pepita, in her cold, soft voice, and with the simply cold +and curious look in her great, richly lashed eyes. + +"Because they are in love with him--all of them," replied Manuel, +sweepingly. + +"Why?" said Pepita, again. + +"' Why?'" Manuel echoed, somewhat bewildered by the frank, indifferent +ignoring of all natural reasons in this question--"'why?' Because he is +so tall and strong and well made, because he is handsome, because he +is more daring and graceful than any of the others--because he is +Sebastiano." + +Pepita laughed, and opened and shut her fan quickly. + +"Why do you laugh?" inquired Manuel. + +"I was thinking how he must despise them," she answered. + +"Oh, no," said Manuel, who was not very clever; "he is always good to +women. There was Sarita--a poor little thing who had always lived in +the country. She saw him at her first bull-fight and was never happy +afterward. She could think of nothing else, and she was too innocent to +hide it. She used to slip away from home and contrive to follow him when +he did not see her. She found a woman who knew some one who knew him, +and she gave her all her little savings in presents to bribe her to be +her friend and talk to her about him. Once or twice she met him, and +because she was such a pretty little one, he spoke kindly to her and +praised her eyes and her dancing. He did not know she was in love with +him." + +Pepita laughed again. + +"Why do you do that?" Manuel asked. + +"He knew," said Pepita. "He would _think_ she was, even if she cared +nothing for him, and since she did care he would know before she did and +would be proud of it, and make it as much worse as he could." + +Manuel gazed at her a moment in silence, twirling his rather small +mustacha. This beautiful, cool, mocking little person, the melting +softness of whose eyes and lips should have promised such feminine +tenderness and emotion, bewildered him greatly; it was plain that she +was wholly unmoved by the glories of Sebastiano, and saw no glamour in +his romances. What other girl would have asked "Why?"--and in that tone? +It was difficult to go on with his story. + +"He could not help it that she was in love with him," he said. "And she +could not help it." + +"Why?" inquired Pepita for the third time, and with a prettier coolness +than before. + +"Why," stammered Manuel, "because--because that is the way with all of +them." + +Pepita showed all her little gleaming teeth, and then put the stem of a +rose between them and held it there like a cigarette as she looked under +her eyelashes at the people. The rose was not as red as her scornful +little mouth. + +"He was always kind to her when he saw her," continued Manuel. "Once he +gave her his _devisa_. When she died she held it in her hand and +would not let it go. It was buried with her. She was a pretty +child--Sarita--but she had always lived in the country and knew +nothing." + +"I have always lived in the country and I know nothing," said Pepita, +mocking him with her great eyes; "but _I_ can help anything I choose. It +should be the others who cannot help it." + +She thought him dull and tiresome, and soon wished he would go away, +but he could not help it, and lingered about with all sorts of stupid +excuses. The more she bewildered him, the more he was fascinated. It was +almost enough to stand and stare at her and hear her voice as she talked +to the others. How pretty she was--that girl--how she held her head +as if she was some high-born lady instead of a peasant! When some +passer-by, more bold than the rest, made (loud enough to be heard) some +comment upon her beauty, it did not disturb her in the least--it was as +if it were nothing to her. Was it possible that there could live a girl +who did not care that she was so pretty? But to imagine that she did not +care was to make a great mistake--she cared very much. Ever since she +had been a tiny child, her little mirror and the water of the fountain +had reflected back to her this pretty face, with its soft rose of cheek +and mouth, its dark liquid eyes, and soft babyish rings of hair curling +on the forehead. She had always heard too that she was pretty, and as +she had grown older she had found out something else, namely, that she +had a power more strong and subtle than that of her beauty--a power +people did not even try to resist. She did not call it by any name +herself or understand it in the least. She often wondered at it, and +even sometimes had a childish secret terror lest the Evil One might have +something to do with it; particularly when without making any effort, +when simply standing apart and looking on at the rest, with a little +smile she had drawn to her side the stupid love-making for which she +cared nothing. It was not so with Dolores and Maria and Isabella, who +were pretty too. Somehow, handsome as they were, they must use their +eyes on their lovers, they must laugh and dance and talk to be adored, +while she need do nothing but be Pepita. + +When, late that evening, she sat with José under the vines, the air +about them heavy with jasmine and orange and lemon blossoms, she asked +a great many questions about the bull-fight. It must be a grand thing to +see--so many people, such gay colors, such music. José could describe it +better than Manuel. He must tell her all about it. + +He described it as well as he could, and in spite of his slow speech +made quite an exciting picture for her; or rather she found it exciting, +as she found all things just now in their novelty. Before Jovita and she +had arrived, while he was making his small preparations for them, he +had seen a bull-fight or so, and no point of detail had escaped his +deliberate mind. He always remembered things--José. + +"But you shall go," he said; "you shall go and see for yourself the very +next time. It comes next week. We will go and take Jovita." + +Pepita clapped her hands for joy. She sprang up and danced a few steps +in her childish delight. + +"That will be happiness," she said. "What happiness! Perhaps the king +and queen will be there!" + +"You will see Sebastiano," said José, seriously. + +"I do not care for Sebastiano," cried Pepita, petulantly. + +"You do not care," said José, in blank amaze, "for Sebastiano? You do +not care?" + +Pepita shrugged her shoulders. + +"They talk too much of him," she answered, "and he is too vain. He +thinks all women are in love with him, and that if a girl comes from the +country she knows nothing, and will die of love if she only sees him." + +"I did not know that," said José, staring. "I never heard them say so. +They call him a fine fellow." + +"I never heard them say so," Pepita answered scornfully; "but I know it. +I am sure he is a fool," which remark caused José much bewilderment, and +led him to reflect long and deeply, but did not, however, lead him to +any conclusion but that Pepita was ruled by one of her caprices. He was +rather afraid to admit that he himself had enjoyed the magnificent +honor of seeing this great hero out of the ring; that through a quite +miraculous favor he had even been allowed to speak to him and to +hear him speak as he stood, the centre of a circle of admirers in a +wine-shop. He had been saving this to tell Pepita, but now he thought it +well to save it a little longer. + +But when the day of the bull-fight arrived it was not possible to +conceal it. + +Ah! the wonders, the splendors of that day from the first hour! At its +very dawning Pepita was up and singing. Jovita must take her rest, that +she might be in her best humor to enjoy the festivities, and not spoil +them by grumbling. Pepita needed no rest; her little feet danced as she +moved; as she made her preparations for the morning meal she chatted +incessantly to José, asking a thousand questions. Everything conspired +to add to her joys. The sky was deep brilliant blue, but there was +a light breeze to make the heat bearable; the birds sang until their +little throats throbbed; the flowers in the garden seemed to have flung +out new masses of bloom to make the small world about them brighter. In +her chamber, near the roof, Pepita's gala dress lay upon her bed, her +new little shoes upon the floor; she had seen them in the moonlight each +time she had awakened in the night. A year ago it would not have seemed +possible that such pretty finery could ever be hers, even in dreams; but +now almost anything seemed possible in this new and enchanting life. + +And when she was dressed how bewitching she was! how her rose of a face +glowed and dimpled! how enchanting was the velvet darkness of her eyes! +how airy the poise of her little black head, with its brilliant flower +tucked in at the side of the knot of curly hair! Jovita stared at her +and made a queer half-internal sound of exclamation. It was not her way +to express approval at all freely, and she had no opinion of people who +wasted time in telling girls they were pretty. But José looked at +the girl as he might have looked at some rare tropical bird which had +suddenly flown into the house. He looked and looked again, pulling his +mustache, his not always alert face warming. + +"Yes, yes," he said, "it all looks very well; that dress is pretty. None +of the other girls will look better. Even Candida--" + +Pepita laughed. Candida had been considered a great beauty in the +village they had left, but she knew she was prettier than Candida. + +José laughed also, though he scarcely knew why. Then with rather a +cautious and uncertain air he produced a gay fan--a cheap one, but +brilliant with color. + +"This--" he began. + +Pepita caught it from him, and unfurled it with a quick turn of her +wrist. On one side was a picture--a dashing erect figure, in a richly +hued costume. + +"It is Sebastiano," said José, guiltily. + +Pepita nodded her head and smiled. + +"I knew it," she said; "I knew he would look like that." + +"There is no other man who can slay a bull as he can," said José. + +"Let him slay them," answered Pepita. And she stood and waved her fan +with the prettiest inscrutable air in the world. + +The journey to the Plaza de Toros was almost as delightful as the +bull-fight itself to Pepita. The streaming crowds of people, all bent +in one direction, and all in their gayest dress and mood, laughing, +jostling each other, chatting, exchanging salutations and jokes, the +grand carriages rolling by with fine ladies and gentlemen in them, the +rattling old diligences, omnibuses, and _tartanes_, whose passengers +seemed more hilarious than the occupants of the more splendid equipages, +the ringing of mule bells, the shouts of drivers, the cracking whips, +the sunshine, the color, the very dust itself, all added to the +excitement of the hour. And as they made their way through the throng, +it was again as it had been that first Sunday at the Paseo de la Virgen +del Puerto, heads turned and exclamations were uttered when Pepita +went by. And somehow it seemed that José was better known than even he +himself had imagined, he received so many greetings. The truth was that +already those who had seen the girl had spoken of her among themselves +and to others, their readily fired Spanish natures aflame and elate. And +those who had not seen, but only heard of her, were in as susceptible +a condition as the more fortunate ones. She had been graphically and +dramatically described again and again, so that by many a one she was +recognized as "the pretty sister of José." + +That was what they called her--"the pretty sister of José." She heard +it half a dozen times, but never once even so much as lifted her long +lashes. She was so used to admiration that it was as if they spoke of +some one else, and it moved her not in the least, as she sat watching +the bulls, to know that bold or languishing eyes dwelt upon her face, +and that efforts were being constantly made to attract her attention. + +It was a magnificent day--every one said so; there were splendid bulls +and splendid dresses, and the fighters were in superb condition. The +people were in good spirits too--the little breeze tempering the heat +had, perhaps, something to do with it. Everything pleased them; they +applauded wildly, and uttered shouts of encouragement and delight +to bulls and toreadors alike. The grand people were richly attired; +beautiful ladies watched with excited eyes the bulls, wearing their +colors in rosettes of satin and glittering tinsel; the thousands of +waving, brilliantly hued fans fluttered like a swarm of butterflies; the +music filled the air. Pe-» pita sat in a dream of joy, the color coming +and going on her cheeks, her rapture glowing in her eyes. She was a +Spanish girl, and not so far in advance of her age that the terrible +features of the pastime going on before her could obscure its brilliancy +and excitement. Truth to tell, she entirely forgot Sebastiano, not even +recognizing him in the pageant of the grand entry, she was so absorbed +in its glitter and blaze of color. But at the killing of the bull, that +was different. Just a moment before she had awakened to the fact that +Manuel was near her--near enough to speak. He had been staring at her, +and growing more restless every moment, until he had at last attracted +the attention of José and Jovita, and his first words to her came amid +shouts of applause and delight. + +"Sebastiano," he said; "it is Sebastiano." Pepita turned to look. With +what a proud and careless air he advanced; with what a strong, light +step; how he held his head and shoulders; how his gold and silver +garnishings glittered; how the people called to him with a sort of +caressing ecstasy! They adored him; he was their idol. Yes, there was a +thrill in it, even for her cold heart. She felt a quick pulsation. To +be so proud and triumphant and daring--to be the central point of +everything--to be able to awake this exultant fervor--was something +after all. And he was beautiful too, though she cared nothing for that, +except as she could see that it added to his triumphs and made them more +complete. His athletic grace of bearing, his dark, spirited face, with +its passionate Andalusian eyes, their shadows intensified by the close, +long black lashes, the very arch of his foot, and superb movement of his +limbs, would have set him apart from ordinary, less fortunate mortals; +but to have all this and be also the demi-god of these impassioned +people, it must be worth living for. If one cared for men, if one did +not find them tiresome, if one was simple enough--like Sarita--to be +carried away by things, there was at least something in all this to +interest one a little. + +"It is Sebastiano," said José. + +But Sebastiano was addressing the president of the games. He extended +his glittering sword, and made his announcement in a clear, rich voice. +Pepita listened as he spoke. And then the most thrilling excitement of +the sport began. It was no child's play Sebastiano had before him. The +fierce black bull glaring at him with bent head and fiery eyes, uttering +low, muttering bellowings of rage as he tore at the earth, throwing up +the dust in a cloud, was a foe worthy of his mettle. He was a bull with +vicious points and treacherous ones. Already goaded to fury by the play +of the picadors and banderilleros, he must be watched, studied, excited, +baffled; not one of his movements must be lost, or even regarded +as trifling; wariness, quickness, magnificent daring, the subtlest +forethought, all were needed. What play it was! what a match between +brute cunning, power, and ferocity, and human courage, adroitness, and +calculation! The brilliant, graceful figure was scarcely a moment in +repose; it leaped and darted, the bright cloak waving, inviting, the +bright sword glittering in the sun--it toyed with death and peril, +evading both with an exultant grace and swiftness marvellous to behold, +and rousing the on-lookers to shouts of joy and triumph. Even old Jovita +wakened to a touch of fire which seemed like a renewal of her long-past +youth. José and Manuel joined their cries with the rest. Pepita felt +again--yes, more than once--that sudden throb and thrill. + +And when at last the end was reached, with what a superb spring the +last splendid blow was given! No need of a second; the bull staggered, +shuddered, fell forward upon his knees, sank upon his side. Sebastiano +stood erect, a brilliant, careless, triumphant figure again, the air +resounding with deafening applause. + +"You have seen him," cried Manuel to Pepita--"you have seen Sebastiano?" + +"Yes," she answered, a little breathlessly, "I have seen him." + +And even as she spoke she knew that he had seen her; she knew it even +before Manuel spoke again in great excitement. + +"He looks this way--he looks at us--at you." + +It was quite true. Something had attracted his attention to the tier of +seats in which they sat, some cry--who knows what?--perhaps some subtle +magnetic influence. He turned his head with a quick movement, and his +eyes fell and fastened themselves instantly upon the brilliant little +face glowing like some bright flower among those humbler and less +blooming. + +"He looks at you, Pepita," said José. + +"He looks at you and at Jovita," Pepita answered. And she laughed and +turned her face away. + +But not before Sebastiano had seen it well. It was Fate. Yes, he knew +that. He had been loved often; he had had romantic adventures, but it +had always been he who had received and the others who had given; he had +always remained Sebastiano, the hero, the adored. And now he stood and +looked at a little head half concealed by a fan, and forgot for a moment +where he was, and that the people were still shouting their applause in +deafening tumult. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Pepita and the others, Manuel with them, ended their gala-day with still +another festivity. They dined together at a little café, and heard the +bull-fight fought over again by those around them. At a table near them +sat three chulos, who talked together in voices loud enough to be heard +throughout their meal. And it was of Sebastiano they spoke, giving +dramatic recitals of his daring deeds, telling each other of what he had +done, of what he could do, and that Madrid had never seen his rival or +peer. And then his conquests. It was true that noble ladies--beautiful +and noble--had sent him messages and tokens. Gonsalvo, who was his +intimate friend, could tell many things if he chose. Sebastiano had +brilliant triumphs. Once he had even been in great danger because the +woman who loved and sought him was of such rank that her relatives +would have resorted to the stiletto rather than allow her infatuation to +continue. + +"But it is said truly that he had no love for her--that he has little +for any of them," said one. "They run after him too much, these women." + +"But there was one to-day--" began one of the others. "I heard it of +Alfonso--he saw her at the bull-fight--Sebastiano--and tried to find +out--" + +He made a movement at this moment which brought Pepita directly within +his view. She had been hidden from him before by the figure of Jovita. +He stopped with his wine untasted and stared at her. A moment later he +bent forward and spoke in a lower tone to his companions, who turned to +look also. Alfonso had pointed her out to him as she left the Plaza de +Toros, and he had recognized her again. + +"The little one is there," was what he said, "behind you. He asked if +any of us had seen her before; if we knew her name." + +Pepita did not hear him, and did not know that from that hour they would +all know her, or that at least there would be few of them who did not. +For Sebastiano to show an interest in a woman, to even go so far as to +ask her name, was such a new thing that it must be spoken of and attract +attention to her. And that she was not a fine lady, but only a pretty +unknown girl with a rose in her hair, made the matter all the more +exciting. When she fell asleep, tired and happy, that night, already she +was on the road to fame. Sebastiano, who was the adored of his order, +who in spite of his adventures sought no woman, had asked her name, had +made efforts to discover it, and had learned that among those who had +had the good fortune to see and speak to her she was known as "the +pretty sister of José." A week from this time José came home one evening +bringing Manuel with him. Manuel was often with him--in fact he had +many friends; almost every day some gay or grave young fellow managed to +attach himself to him, and somehow the acquaintance always shared itself +soon afterward with Pepita. But Manuel appeared oftener than the rest, +having a timid obstinacy, and seeming only puzzled and not discouraged +by the indifference which sometimes ignored his very existence. On this +particular evening he was moved from his usual calm, and so was José. +They had seen Sebastiano; they had spoken to him; in the presence of a +circle of his friends and admirers he had drunk wine with them. "We were +passing the wine-shop and we saw him," explained Manuel, "and we went in +to look on a little and hear him talk. One of the chulos who stood near +spoke to him quickly when he saw us--as if he knew us--and presently the +same chulo came and spoke to José, and soon Sebastiano came and spoke +too. The one who approached us first was one of the three who drank +at the table near us on the evening after the bull-fight. Once, in +his boyhood, Sebastiano lived near the village you left; he knew Padre +Alejandro and some others; he was pleased to see José and speak of +them--it was as if they were friends at once." + +"He has a good heart," put in José; "they all say that of him. He +remembered everything--even old Juan, who lived to be a hundred and was +bent double. He asked if he lived yet. It seems strange that he was once +so near us, and was a little lad, ill-used and poor. He is not too +proud to remember it. He would be a good friend to one in +trouble--Sebastiano--though he is rich and spoken of by the whole +world." + +So great a celebrity José was convinced must be known to the entire +universe. That night, as Pepita made ready for her bed, old Jovita, who +had already retired, lay and looked at her. + +The girl stood in the flood of brilliant white moonlight which bathed +part of the bare room; her round dimpled arms were lifted as she unwound +the soft dusky coils of her hair, to which there yet clung a few stars +of jasmine. There was the shadow of a smile on her lips, and she was +humming a tune. + +"What does he want with José--this Sebastiano?" said Jovita, +grumblingly. + +"Who knows?" said Pepita. + +"He wants something," Jovita went on. "They don't make friends with +those beneath them for nothing, these fine ones. They all talk of you, +these foolish fellows, and he has heard, and makes friends so that he +can see you." + +"What do they say of me?" asked + +Pepita, without deigning to look up. + +"Men are all fools," grumbled Jovita; "and they think girls are fools +too. They say you have a pretty face; and he thinks he can make a fool +of you if you are not one." + +"Does he?" said Pepita, with a dimpling cruel little smile. "Let him +come to-morrow--to-night. Let him begin." + +"He will begin soon enough," Jovita answered. "You will see. Be sure he +does not play the old game with you as he did with Sarita." + +[Illustration: Shook the small stray blossoms out of her hair 069] + +Pepita shook the small stray blossoms out of her hair and began to +retwist the coil, breaking into singing in a clear voice: + + "White, white is the jasmine flower; + Let its stars light thee + Here to my casement, + Where I await thee. + White, white is the jasmine flower, + Sweet, sweet is the heart of the rose, + Sweet my mouth's blossom--" + +She stopped short and dropped her arms. + +"See," she said, "let him want what he will, let him come a thousand +times, and I will never speak to him." + +In the gardens the next Sunday they met him. Pepita was talking to +a young girl whose name was Isabella, and whose brother. Juan was +following in the footsteps of Manuel and the rest. It was Isabella who +first saw the matador, and uttered an exclamation. + +"Your brother is coming," she cried, "with--yes, with Sebastiano." + +José's simple face was on fire with delight, but Sebastiano looked less +gay, and his step was less carelessly buoyant than it had been in the +bull-ring. As he approached the group he looked only at Pepita. But +Pepita looked only at José, her eyes laughing. + +"Jovita is cross," she said; "she has been asking for you. She wishes to +go home." + +Sebastiano's eyes were fastened upon her face, upon her red lips, as she +spoke. He had heard that she was like this; that she gave her glances to +no man; that she was prettier than the rose in bloom, and as cruel as +a young hawk, and his heart beat as he found himself near to her. Since +the hour he had seen her he had thought only of how he might see +her again, of how he might find her. He had made one bold plan after +another, and had been forced to abandon each of them, and then mere +chance had thrown José in his path. And now the instant he approached +her she was about to elude him. + +He spoke a few hurried words to José. It was too early to go away; the +pleasure of the day was scarcely at its height; he wished to entertain +them; they must not go. + +"I will go and speak to Jovita," said José, and he went, leaving the +four together. + +The two simpler ones were somewhat abashed by the splendor of the +dashing figure; they gazed at it with mingled curiosity and joy. To be +so near it was enough, without effort at conversation. Sebastiano moved +to Pepita's side. A Spanish lover loses little time. + +"I saw you," he said, "at the bull-fight." + +Pepita looked over his shoulder and smiled at a passing woman who had +greeted her. Her face dimpled, and she showed her small white teeth. It +was as if she did not see the matador at all. + +"It was at the bull-fight," he persisted. "Two weeks ago. You had a red +flower in your hair, as you have to-day. Ever since--" + +"It was not true," Pepita said gayly, to Isabella, "what I said of +Jovita. She is always cross, but she does not wish to go home. She met +an old woman she knew in her young days, and is enjoying herself very +much." + +"Why did you say it?" asked Isabella, with simple wonder. + +"Because I wished to go home myself." + +"Truly!" said Isabella. "Why is that?" + +"I am not entertained so much to-day," answered Pepita. + +[Illustration: We will make it more amusing 075] + +"We will make it more amusing," said Sebastiano, eagerly. "It shall be +more amusing--" + +"There is Jovita with her old woman now," interrupted Pepita. "I will go +and speak to them." + +She was gone the next instant--her movement was like the flight of +a bird. Sebastiano stood and stared after her in silence until Juan +addressed him respectfully. + +"She is very wonderful," he said. "She changes her mind before one +knows. Just before you came she said she was amused, and wished to +remain." + +"Perhaps," began Sebastiano, much discomforted--"perhaps it was I--" + +"Ah, senor," said Juan, with great politeness, "never. It is said that +she always does what she chooses, and she chooses to do a thousand +things." + +"That is because she is so pretty," said Isabella. "She is so much +prettier than all the others, and she does not care." + +"A woman who is so pretty as that," remarked Juan, sententiously, "need +not care." + +"She says," put in Isabella, "that if she does not care, others will; +but if she should care, the others--" She stopped, meeting Sebastiano's +eyes and becoming a little confused. + +"What would happen then," he said, "if she should care?" + +"I do not know," said Isabella; "but she never will--never." + +But if she changed often toward others, Sebastiano found no change in +her mood toward him. They did not leave the gardens until late in the +day. Jovita was enjoying too greatly the comradeship of her old woman, +and was ready to enjoy any pleasure offered to her. Sebastiano had a +full purse, and perhaps understood old women of Jovita's class. He made +himself very agreeable to these two, finding them the most comfortable +seats and supplying them with things good to eat and drink, over which +they gossiped together, leaving the young ones to amuse themselves as +they pleased. They were very gay, the younger ones; even Manuel, elated +by the presence and hospitalities of Sebastiano, made little jokes. But +none of them were gayer than Pepita. She was the centre figure of +the party; they all looked at her, listened to her, were led by her +slightest caprice. They went here and there, did this or that, because +she wished it. It was Sebastiano who was the host of the hour, but by +instinct each knew it was Pepita who was the chief guest--who must be +pleased. + +"Is she pleased?" the matador asked José once in a low-toned aside. +"Does she not entertain herself?" + +"Does she not say so?" answered José, with some slight secret misgiving. + +"I do not know," said Sebastiano, looking down. "She does not speak to +me." + +José pushed his hat aside and rubbed his forehead. His respect for +Pepita's whims had begun early in life and was founded on experience. + +"She is young," he faltered--"she is very young. When she enjoys herself +she--" + +He paused with an uneasy movement of his shoulders. It was quite +terrible to him that she should treat with such caprice and disdain so +splendid and heroic a person; but he knew there was nothing to be done. + +"She admires you," he said, with courageous mendacity. "She saw you at +the bullfight." + +"She will be there again? You will take her--the next time?" said +Sebastiano. + +"Yes," answered José. "She has asked that I will. It was the greatest +pleasure of her life." + +But it was true that during all the afternoon she had never once spoken +to Sebas-tiano. She had been as gay as a young bird, and the spirit of +the party, her laughter, her pretty mockeries and sauciness, had carried +all before them. Manuel had been reduced to hopeless slavery. Isabella +had looked on in secret reverential wonder. Jovita's old woman had +glanced aside again and again, nodding her head, and saying, sagely: +"Yes, she will always have it her own way--the little one. You are lucky +in having such a grandchild. She will never be a load." But throughout +it all Pepita had managed it that not one of her words had fallen +directly to Sebastiano. If he spoke to her, she gave her answer to the +one nearest to him. If he did not put an actual question to her, she +replied merely with a laugh or a piquant grimace or gesture, which +included all the rest. It was worse than coldness. To the others it was +perhaps not perceptible at all; only he who searched for her eyes, who +yearned and strove to meet them, knew that they never rested upon him +for an instant. + +And then when he so daringly arranged that José should invite him to +return home with them, to what did it all come? He was lured to old +Jovita's side by the fact that at the beginning of the walk Pepita kept +near her, and no sooner had the old woman involved him in tiresome talk, +from which he could not escape, than the small figure flitted away and +ended the journey homeward under the wing of José, and accompanied by +Manuel and a certain gay little Carlos, who joked and laughed like a +child. + +And when after they arrived, and the moon rose, and they sat under the +vines, though there was gayety and laughter, he knew, as before, that +in some mysterious manner he was excluded from it, though he seemed the +honored and distinguished guest. Carlos, who sat near some shrubs in +bloom, made a little wreath of white flowers, and as she played and +sang to her guitar, Pepita wore it on her head. Then Manuel, not to be +outdone, wove a garland of pink oleander, and she threw it about her +throat and sang on. Sebastiano forgot at last to speak, and could only +sit and look at her. He could see and hear nothing else. It was almost +the same thing with the rest, for that matter. She was somehow the +centre figure round which they all seemed to have gathered, as she sat +there playing, a night breeze sometimes stirring the soft ruffled hair +on her forehead, which was like black floss silk; and whatsoever she +sang, however passionate and tender the wild little song, however +passionate and tender her voice, her young eyes had mockery in +them--mocked at the words, the tenderness of her own voice, and at those +who were moved by it; and most of all Sebastiano knew that she mocked at +himself. + +But he could not go away. Some strange thing had happened to him, it +seemed; it was as if a spell had fallen upon him. + +Better to be mocked than to go away. He stayed so late that Jovita +fell asleep and nodded under the shadow of the grape-vines. And at last +Pepita put down her guitar and rose. She stood upright in the moonlight, +and extended her pretty arms and stretched them, laughing. + +"Good-night," she said. "Jovita will amuse you. Already there have been +too many hours in this day." + +She ran into the house with no other adieu than a wave of her hand, and +the next minute they could hear her singing in her room, and knew she +was going to bed. + +Sebastiano rose slowly. + +"Good-night," he said to José. + +Manuel and Carlos said good-night also, and went out together, walking +side by side down the white moonlit road; but Sebas-tiano moved away +from the shadowing vines with a lingering step, and José went with him +a short distance. Something in his hero's air of gravity and abstraction +somewhat overawed him. + +"She has not been entertained," said Sebastiano at last. + +"Yes, yes," said José. "She has had pleasure all the day. And she is +fond of pleasure." + +"She said there had been too many hours in the day." + +José rubbed his head a little reflectively for a moment, and then his +countenance somewhat brightened. + +"She wished to lie a little for amusement," he said, affectionately. +"There is no wrong in her--Pepita--but sometimes, to be amused, she will +tell a little lie without sin in it, because she knows we understand +her. She does not expect us to believe. We who are used to her know her +better. You will also understand in time." + +"Then I may come again?" asked Sebas-tiano. + +The heavy body of José almost trembled with simple pleasure. + +"It is all yours, senor," he said, with a gesture including the little +house and all the grape-vines and orange blossoms and oleanders. "It is +poor and small, but it is yours--and we--" + +Sebastiano's dark eyes rested for an instant on a little window under +the eaves where a jasmine vine wreathed a thick tangle of green, starred +with white flowers. And as he looked a voice broke through the fragrant +barrier singing a careless, broken bit of song-- + + "White, white is the jasmine flower; + Let its stars light thee." + +"It is Pepita," said José. "She always sings when she is pleased. It is +always a good sign." + +If her singing was a sign of pleasure, then she must have been enjoying +her life greatly in the days that came afterward, for she was singing +continually. As she went about her work there was always the shadow of +a smile on her lips and in her eyes, as if her thoughts amused her. And +she was in such gay spirits that José was enchanted. He had only one +vague source of trouble: all the rest had turned out so well! It had all +occurred just as he had dreamed, but scarcely dared to hope, in those +by-gone days when he had been hard-worked and ill-fed and ill-clad. He +had a good place, and what seemed by comparison incredibly good wages. +He had the nice little house, and Pepita had holiday garments as gay and +pretty as any other girl, and looked, when dressed in them, gayer and +ten times prettier than all the rest. + +That was what he had looked forward to most of all, and his end was +attained. And when he walked out with her, all the young fellows who +were allowed to come near--and many who were not--fell in love. Yes, it +was true; he saw it himself and heard it on every side. It would take +the fingers of both hands to count those who were frankly enamoured, +beginning with Carlos and Manuel. But it was at this point that the +vague trouble came in. And it was Pepita herself who caused it, by her +treatment of her adorers. To say that she dealt out scorn to them would +be to say too much; she simply dealt out nothing--and less. They might +come and go; they might follow and gaze and sigh--she did not even +deign to seem to know they did so, unless by chance one became too +pertinacious, and then she merely transfixed him with a soft, cruelly +smiling eye. "She will not marry any of them," said José to Jovita in +bewilderment. + +"That will come soon enough," said Jovita. "She is pretty, and it makes +her a little fool--all girls are like that; but one of these days you +may look out--it will be all over. She is just the one to blaze up all +at once." + +"I do not think she is a fool like other girls," said José, with +gravity. "But she does not seem to care about love; she does not seem +to know. She is not even sorry for them when they are miserable." He did +not consider himself when he thought of her marriage; in truth he put +himself in the background, for if some other man filled her life and her +heart his vocation would be gone, and there would be some dull hours for +him before he could become used to it. But he had an innocent feeling +that without this love, of which all men talked so much, the life he +wished to be bright would not be quite complete. She was too pretty and +too good never to be married--never to have a home of her own and some +fine fellow to love the dust she walked on. He himself was only José, +and a brother was, after all, a poor substitute for a lover who could +talk and sing and make jokes, and wear such a dashing air that she would +be proud of him. + +"That is it," he said, sagely, to himself. "A woman must have some one +to be proud of, and she could never be proud of me. If I were Sebastiano +now, it would be different." + +He stopped suddenly and rubbed his head, as his habit was when he was +startled or confused, and his face became rather red. Perhaps this was +because he remembered that among all the rest, the magnificent, the +illustrious, the beautiful Sebastiano was the one to whom she showed +least grace. In fact it was almost mysterious, her manner toward him. +They had seen him often--he had come in many evenings to sit under the +vines; when they went out for pleasure it somehow happened that they +nearly always met him; but when he joined them Pepita became at once +possessed of some strange wilful spirit. Upon reflection José found +that he had never yet heard her speak to him: it appeared to him as +he thought it over that she always by some device avoided answering +directly what he said to her. + +"That is a strange thing," said José, deeply mystified, as he suddenly +realized this, "when one remembers how he can slay a bull. There is no +one else who can slay a bull as he can. It is enough to make one weep +for joy. And yet she can treat him ill." + +But he did not know how ill; only Sebas-tiano knew that. Since the day +he had stood in the arena and had seen all in a moment, as if a star had +suddenly started into the sky, the small black head and rose of a face, +he had lived in a fevered dream--a dream in which he pursued always +something which seemed within his grasp and yet forever eluded him. What +had he cared for all the rest of the women? Nothing. It had confused +and angered him when they had thrown themselves in his way or sent him +offerings, and when he had been told of this or that beauty who was +in love with his proud, bearing and dashing courage. Women! What were +women? He had only cared for the bulls, for the clamor of the people, +and the wild excitement of the arena. All he had wished for was to learn +the best stroke, the finest leap. But this girl, who had never opened +her scornful little mouth to deign him a word--who had never once +allowed him to look in her eyes--somehow this one drove him half mad. +He could think of nothing else; he forgot even the bulls; he spent all +the day and sometimes all the night in devising plans to entrap her into +speaking, to force her to look at him. How obstinate she was! How she +could elude him, as if by some magic! + +What had he not done that he might be near her? He had followed her +everywhere. José did not know that she scarcely ever went out without +his following and speaking to her. He used to spring up by her side as +if he had risen out of the earth, but after the first two or three times +he never succeeded in making her start or show any feeling whatever. + +But that first time, and even the second, she had started. The first +time she had gone to the old well for water, and as she stood resting +in the shade a moment he appeared With a bouquet of beautiful strange +flowers in his hand. + +"God be with you!" he said, and laid the flowers down a moment and drew +the water for her. + +She watched him draw it, smiling just a little. + +"It will be a fine day for the bull-fight," he said, when her jar was +filled. + +She put her hand up and shaded her working eyes as she looked at the +blue sky, but she said nothing. + +"Do you go to-day to the Plaza de Toros?" he asked. "You shall have good +places--the best. They are good bulls to-day, black Andalusians, fierce +and hard to manage. There will be fine sport. You will go?" + +[Illustration: She leaned against the side of the well 095] + +She leaned against the side of the well and looked down into the water, +where she could see her face reflected in the cool, dark depths. The +next moment Sebastiano's was reflected also. He held the flowers in his +hand. + +"These!" he said. "It was one of the gardeners of the king who gave them +to me. They are such as the queen sometimes wears. I brought them that +you might wear them at the bull-fight." + +She saw their beauty reflected in the water. She would not look at them +directly. They were very beautiful. She had never seen such flowers. And +the queen herself had worn others like them. If any one else had brought +them--but it was Sebastiano. And she remembered Sarita. Perhaps he had +at some time given some to Sarita, knowing that to a country girl who +knew nothing they would seem very grand. Sarita would have been sure to +take them. + +A wicked little look came into her face. She turned as if to take up her +water jar. But Sebastiano laid his hand upon it. + +"You will not speak," he said passionately. "No; nor even look at the +flowers I bring you. You shall tell me at least what I have done. Come, +now. Am I a devil? What is it?" + +She put her hands behind her back and fixed her great eyes upon him +for a moment. He could not say now that she had not looked at him. He +thought he could keep her, did he, when she did not choose to stay? She, +Pepita! She stood there staring at him for a moment, and then turned +about and walked off, leaving him with her water jar. Let him stand and +watch over it all day if he would. + +She went back to the house and called Jovita. + +"If you want your water now," she said, "you will have to go to the well +for it. It is drawn, and Senor Sebastiano is taking care of it." + +"Mother of God!" said Jovita, staring, "she is mad with her Senor +Sebastiano." + +But not another word could she gain, and before she could reach the well +she met a boy carrying the water jar toward the house, and was told that +he had been paid to bring it. + +They went to the bull-fight; and, as Pepita sat among the rest, +out-blooming the red flower in her hair, she heard it said that +Sebastiano had never before been so magnificent, had never shown such +daring and dexterity. + +"He looks at Pepita," said Isabella to Carlos. "When he entered, his +eyes found her before he saw anything else." + +Yes, he saw Pepita, and Pepita sat and watched him with as cool an +interest as if the peril with which he played meant nothing. Her +lovely eyes glowed under their drooping lashes, but it was only with a +momentary excitement caused by the fierce sport; the man was nothing. + +So it seemed at least to Sebastiano. It was a bad bull he encountered, +savage and treacherous, and maddened by his rage. Once there was a +moment when a shadow of a misstep would have cost him his life. There +was no time to look at Pepita then, but when the danger was passed and +he glanced toward her, she was softly waving her fan and smiling up at +Manuel as if she had not even seen. + +"She has a bad heart," he said to himself, with fierce impatience. "It +is not nature that a young girl should mock at everything, and be so +cruel, and have neither feeling nor even a little fear. She has a bad +heart, or none at all." + +He would not look at her again; he swore it to himself. And for a short +time he kept his vow; but there came a moment when something, some +irresistible feeling, conquered him. It was as if he must look--as if +some magic forced him, drew his eyes toward her in spite of himself. +And when he had looked, a sharp shock thrilled him, for she herself was +looking at him; her eyes were fixed upon him with a strange steadiness, +as if perhaps they had been resting upon him for some minutes and she +had forgotten herself. It was a little thing perhaps, but it was enough +for his hot blood and swift-veering impulsive nature. He had just given +the final stroke; he was panting, glowing. The people were shouting, +rising in their seats, and repeating his name with caressing, applauding +epithets attached to it. Chance had brought him near the seat in +which she sat, with Jovita and José and the others near her. They were +applauding with the rest, all but Pepita, who only sat and smiled. And +in the midst of it Sebastiano made a swift movement, so swift that +it was scarcely to be understood--a mere touch of the hand to the +shoulder--and something bright, like a many-hued bird, flew over the +barrier and fell upon Pepita's lap. It was the knot of gay, rich ribbon +which a moment before the matador had worn. + +"It is the _devisa!_" exclaimed Isabella, in an awestruck tone. + +"It is his _devisa_," cried José--"his _devisa_, Pepita. He has thrown +it to you yourself--Sebastiano." + +The next moment he was struck dumb with amazement. Pepita sat upright +and broke into a little laugh. She lightly waved her fan. + +"Why did he not throw it to Jovita?" she said, and with a cruel, +careless little movement she swept the _devisa_ from her knee; it fell, +and she set her foot upon it. + +"She has trodden upon it," said old Jovita. "She has done it for pride, +and to show herself above others. She is ready for the devil. Some one +should beat her." + +"It was the _devisa_," gasped José. "Sebastiano." + +Pepita left her seat. It seemed as if something strange must have +happened to her. The crimson had leaped to her cheeks, and her eyes were +ablaze. + +"What is it to me, his _devisa?_" she said. "I do not want it. I will +not have it. Let him throw a thousand, and I will tread upon them all, +one after the other. Let it lie in the dirt. Let him give it to those +others, those women who want it--and him." She would go home at once; +not to the pleasure-gardens, not anywhere but back to the cottage; +and José followed her meekly, struck dumb. He had seen her wilful, +capricious, childishly passionate, a little hard to understand, many +times before, but never like this. What had occurred to her? What had +Sebastiano done? + +Jovita had picked up the knot of gay ribbon and brushed the dust off it, +and carried it home with her, grumbling fiercely. She was never averse +to grumbling a little, and here, the saints knew, was cause. + +"For pride," she kept repeating; "for pride, and to show that others are +beneath her! Mother of God! the king himself is not good enough for her! +Let him come and pray upon his knees that she will go to the palace and +wear a crown, and he will see what she will say! It is these fools of +men who spoil her, as if there had never been a pretty face before. Let +them treat her as she treats them, and she will be humble enough. She +was always one of the devil's children with her pride!" + +But Pepita, who heard it all, said nothing, though once or twice she +gave her little mocking laugh. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +By the time Pepita had reached home her mood had changed--her anger was +gone, or at least the signs of it were. She sang as she prepared the +supper, and chatted gayly with José. It appeared that, after all, she +had enjoyed the bull-fight; it had even been better than the others; +she had had great pleasure. She made delightful little jests about +everything; she recounted the names of the people she had seen and +known; she described to him the dresses of the girls, the airs and +graces of the men. She laughed, and obliged José to laugh also, and all +the time she looked so pretty, with the queer light in her eyes, the +gleam of her little wicked white teeth, and the brilliant spot of color +on her cheeks, that she was enough to turn one's head. + +The moon was at its brightest that night. All the earth was bathed +in pure, magic whiteness--the whiteness which somehow seems to bring +perfume and stillness and mysterious tenderness with it. Such a night! +One breathed roses and orange blossoms and jasmine. Pepita sat under the +roses and sang and talked, and José smoked and was happy, but still in +a state of bewilderment, though the stillness and beauty of the night +soothed him and made him content to ruminate without words. + +Jovita fell asleep. She always fell asleep out-of-doors on the warm +summer nights, and in-doors by the fire when it was winter. Pepita +ceased to talk, and sang one little song after another; then she even +ceased to sing, and only touched her guitar softly now and then. After a +while José, who had stretched himself upon a bench, fell asleep also. + +Pepita ceased to touch her guitar. She looked out at the flowers +sleeping in the moonlight, and for a few minutes was very still; then +she laid the guitar down and stepped out into the brightness. + +In the light of the moon one cannot see the color in a face. Perhaps +this was why hers seemed to be gone. She looked quite pale, and her +lovely little brows were drawn together until they made a black line +across her forehead. She clasped her hands behind her head, and with her +face a little thrown back, so that the light fell full upon it, wandered +out among the trees and fragrant flowering things. She liked the jasmine +best, and over one part of the low, rough wall there climbed one which +blossomed with a myriad stars. So she went and stood by it, and looked +now at it, now up and down the road, which the moon had made into a path +of snow. + +And as she stood there, suddenly there started up on the other side of +the wall the figure she knew so well, and the next moment it had vaulted +over and was close to her. Sebastiano! + +She stood still, her hands still clasped behind her head, her face still +upturned, and looked at him. + +[Illustration: Her hands still clasped behind her head 107] + +He folded his arms and looked at her. As for him, whether the moonlight +was to blame or not, he was as pale as death. + +"Yes," he said, "you are always the same. You do not change. One may +come at any hour. But listen to me. You think I have come to reproach +you. Why should I? I have fought bulls, but that does not teach men how +to deal with women. I thought that, if a man gave you his soul and his +life and the breath of his body, you would listen some day and let him +think of you. You are a woman, and you are made to be loved; but there +is something hard in your heart. You are proud of having mocked a man +who was honest and loved you. But hear me: it is better, after all, to +be less pretty and more a woman." + +He stopped an instant. She had changed her position, and stood by the +jasmine, stripping the blossoms from it one by one. She began to smile +and sing softly, as if to herself: + + "Oh, bird at my window, + Sing but one song to me, + My lover who is light and gay." + +"And more a woman," said Sebastiano. "It is women men want." + +Pepita looked up and laughed; then she sang again: + + "Who stirs the blossoms in the night, + Who breaks the orange flower." + +Sebastiano made a swift movement and caught her wrists, his eyes +flashing fire. + +"That is nothing," he said. "You are woman enough. The time will come. +It will not be always like this. You can be _made_ to love. Yes, you are +one of those who must be _made_. Then you will suffer too, and it will +be good for you. You will speak then." + +He paused a moment, and held her arms a little apart, looking at her +with a sudden change to mournfulness. + +"How pretty you are!" he said. "How little and how pretty! If you were +good and gentle, and one might touch your cheek softly or stroke your +hair, how one would love and serve you! No, you cannot move. I have not +fought bulls for nothing. If I let you move you will struggle and hurt +yourself. Listen. I am going away. I will trouble you no more now. I +will wait. If one waits long enough, pain ceases and one forgets. It +is so with a wound, why not with what one feels for a woman? I said you +could be _made_ to love; but let that be left for another man to do. I +want no love like that. I want a woman. Some day you will not cast the +_devisa_ under your feet. You will take it and hide it in your breast. +It will not be mine, but some other man's who loves you less. I loved +you, I was mad for you; but it shall cease. It is better to think only +of the bulls than to play the fool for a woman who has no love in her +heart. You are pretty, but that is not everything. You can work spells, +but a man can break through them. There! Go!" + +He gave her one long look, flung her hands aside, and had vaulted the +wall and was gone himself one moment later. + +Pepita stood still with clinched hands dropped at her side, staring with +wide fierce eyes down the white moonlit road. + +The next evening José came home from his work later than usual. He came +down the road with a drooping head and a slow and heavy step. When he +sat down to his food he ate but little, and as he bent over his soup he +heard Jovita scolding. + +"It is gone," she was saying. "You took it, and have thrown it away." + +"Was it not mine?" said Pepita. "It was mine. I cared nothing for it, +and have done what I chose with it." + +José lifted his head and listened. + +"What has happened?" he asked. + +"She has thrown away the _devisa_, which I had saved," answered Jovita. +"I laid it away, and she has taken it. What harm did it do her that it +should lie out of her sight in peace?" + +"Did you do that?" José said to Pepita. + +"Was it meant for her?" said Pepita. "I told you he ought to have thrown +it to her and not to me." + +José broke a piece of bread and crumbled it on the table mechanically. + +"You need not have done that," he said. "I wish you had left it in its +place. It did no hurt, and we shall not see him again. He is not coming +any more. And soon he goes away; and who knows what may happen?" + +Pepita walked out of the house without speaking. She did not come back +for a long time, and they did not know where she had gone; but as that +was her way when she was in a naughty humor, they were not anxious about +her. + +When she returned at last the moon was shining again, and Jovita was +asleep in the shadow of the vines, and José sat on the bench outside the +door, smoking. + +[Illustration: Pepita sat down on the threshold 115] + +Pepita sat down on the threshold and rested her head against the side of +the door. She said nothing at all, and only looked out at the dew-laden +flowers sparkling in the garden. + +There was silence for several minutes, and then José turned uneasily and +spoke. + +"Yes," he said, "he will not come again; and soon he goes away. It is +for the best. He is very strong and determined. Perhaps that comes of +fighting bulls. He said he wanted you, but you did not want him, so he +must forget about you. He must cease to think of you or hear of you. +He asked me as a friend not to let him see me for a while, until it was +over. To see me would remind him of you, and that would not do. He asked +it as a friend--there was no unkind-ness--he is my friend, yes, though +he is Sebastiano and I am only a poor fellow who works hard. It will +all be as well as ever between us when it is all done with and we meet +again. If you had wanted him we should have been brothers." + +Pepita sat still. What strange thing had happened to her? She did not +know. Something was the matter with her breathing. Something hurt her +side--labored in it with heavy beatings like blows which suffocated her. +She shut her hands and drove the nails into her palms. She could not +have spoken for the world. + +Before José could say more she rose with fierce suddenness, and passed +him and was gone again. + +The poor fellow looked after her small swift form mournfully. + +"If she had wanted him," he said, "he would have made her a good +husband, and we should have been brothers. But she is not easy to +please, and she would not give one a chance who did not please her at +first. And there is no one who slays a bull as he does!" + +Pepita flew like a bird until she reached the low wall where the jasmine +grew, at the spot where she had stood the night before. There she +stopped, panting. The breath of the jasmine filled all the air about +her. She looked up the white road. + +A strange new passion filled her. She did not know whether it was anger +or not, but if it was anger it was of a new kind, with more pain in +it than she was used to. He would not come again--not at all again! +He would not appear at her side as if he had sprung from the earth; he +would not follow her or plead with her, or look at her every moment he +was near her; he would not try to make her speak. Only last night he was +here in this very spot, and now he would never speak like that again. He +would forget her, not care for her--forget her, Pepita. + +She would not believe it. She knew he could not--they never did; they +always loved her best and wanted no one else. And still the labored +throbbing went on in her side and she panted for breath. + +"Come back," she cried, looking up the white road. "I tell you to come +back. You shall. Do you hear? I tell you--I--Pepita!" + +But there was no answer, no sound of any footstep, no sign of any +advancing shadow. The road stretched out its white length in utter +solitude, and a strange, wild look came into her beautiful little face. + +"Do you not hear?" she persisted. "I will not speak to you if you do +come; I will give you nothing; I will not look at you; but you shall +come because I will it--because I am Pepita." + +Still there was only silence and loneliness. Suddenly she flung out her +hands and stamped her foot. + +"I will kill you," she said. "If you do not come--I will kill you!" + +Then almost immediately she put her clinched hand to her beating side +and sank down upon the earth, burying her face in the dew-wet fragrant +tangle of the jasmine. + +But he did not come back. And yet every night she went and stood by the +low wall, and looked up the white road and watched and waited. For a +long time she did not know what she intended to do if he should appear. +All was vague in her mind. At first it seemed only as if her whole being +went out into the fierce demand that he should come, and the obstinate +proud belief that it must be as she wished--that he could not resist and +disobey her. Who had ever disobeyed her? Not José; not Jovita, for all +her grumblings; not any of those others. And was it likely that he who +had adored her more than all the rest, who had watched her with that +hungry love in his eyes, could do what no other had ever done? She told +herself this over and over again; but he did not come. She began to feel +a feverish eagerness when she dressed herself, a passionate desire to +be pretty--to be prettier than ever before. She used to stand before her +scrap of looking-glass to try on one bit of simple finery after another, +twisting up the soft cloud of her hair afresh a dozen times a day, and +putting a fresh flower in it. She went to the well again and again and +filled her jar, and emptied and filled it again, and lingered, and tried +not to look round when she heard a footstep; but the right one never +came, though her heart's throbbing shook her many times in false alarm. +She was only a child--a passionate Spanish child, ignorant and full +of fierce young natural impulses--and she knew only childish, crude +methods. So she made herself beautiful, and showed herself in the places +where she thought he would see her and be unable to resist her will +and her beauty; but though she made José take her here and there and +everywhere, she never saw Sebastiano but once. It was in the Public +Garden, where they had first met. They were sitting in the shade +refreshing themselves with wine, and he came toward them, not at first +seeing them. Pepita clutched her fan until she broke it, and a wild +exultation sprang in her breast. She had seen before she left home that +she had never before been so pretty. + +There had come into her face a new look--a fire that had burned deeper +every charm. He would see--he would see that she was Pepita still, and +that he could not keep his word if she chose--if she chose. + +He drew nearer and nearer, still not seeing them. He was talking to the +three companions who were with him. He was richly dressed, and looked +stronger than ever, and more handsome and graceful. He came still +nearer. No, she would not speak to him. No! He looked up and his eye +fell upon them--upon José and Jovita and Pepita! He drew back a step +and stood still; he made a low bow to them, a grand bow, such as he made +when he was in the bull-ring and the people applauded. He turned away +and passed on. Yes, without a word. + +Jose sighed a deep and mournful sigh and rose to his feet. + +"Come," he said. "We must go. It is best not to stay. He does not wish +to see us, and he asked that I would keep away. It is a pity--but he +asked it." + +The breath was coming in sharp little puffs through Pepita's delicate +nostrils. It was as if she had been struck a blow. She walked home as in +a sort of delirium; she saw none of those who turned to look at her. She +walked faster and faster. Jovita could not keep pace with her. + +"What is the matter?" said the old woman. "You walk as if you had a +devil in you. Your breath is all gone. Are you mad?" + +At night, when they sat together, Pepita spoke of the next bull-fight. +José must take her. She wished to go. + +"It is better that we should not go there," said José. "You know why. +He will not like to see you. You saw how it was to-day. He is not angry, +only he is determined not to be reminded. Soon he will go away, and then +you shall go with me as often as you wish; but not now. After this week +he will be far away--far away." + +"I will go now," said Pepita. "I will go without you if you will not +take me. Isabella and Juan and Manuel will be glad enough. Let him--let +him look at his bulls." + +She did not know that it was desperation that had seized upon her; she +thought it was defiance. Yes, yes, she told herself, breathlessly, he +should see her laugh and talk with Manuel and Carlos and Juan and the +rest; and then he would be punished. + +She would hear nothing that José said. She would go--she would go. No +other bull-fight but this would please her. + +She could scarcely live until the day arrived. She had made for herself +a new gala dress; she had a new fan and a necklace she had bought out of +her little savings. + +There was a great crowd. It was known that Sebastiano was to go away, +and many had come for that reason, wishing to see him for the last time +in the season. + +At first Pepita was gayer than her adorers had ever seen her. She +deigned to talk and smile and listen. She had the restlessness and color +of some brilliant-winged bird. Isabella looked at her in wonder. + +"She was never like this before," she whispered to Juan. + +And then Sebastiano came, and for the time they saw only him. + +When at last the bull lay an inert mass in the dust, and the people +shouted and almost flung themselves from their places into the arena in +their excitement, and the gay and superb actor bowed to them--bowed to +them again and again--Pepita sat like a little image of stone. She was +quite colorless, and her eyes were fixed. She seemed to hear and see +nothing until some one spoke to her. Then she rose and looked at Manuel. + +"It is too hot," she said, in a low voice not like her own. "I must go. +The sun. I have a pain in my head. Come." + +He had not lifted his eyes once to her. It was as if she had not +lived--as if she had been Isabella or Carmenita--and he did not give her +a thought. No, he had not once looked up. + +The next day he was gone. She heard José say so to Jovita, who grumbled +loudly. She had forgotten her old distaste for these "fine ones." + +"And but for her humors he would have stayed," she said. "What more does +she want than a fine well-built man like that--a man who is well-to-do, +and whom every other girl would dance for joy to get? But no; nothing +but a prince for her. Well, we shall see. She will work for her bread +herself at last, and serve the other women who have homes and husbands." + +In the middle of the night she was wakened from her slumbers by +something--she knew not what. Soon she perceived it was Pepita, +trembling. + +"What is it now?" demanded the old woman. + +"I stayed out in the dew too long," said Pepita, "and I am cold." + +"That is well," said Jovita. "Get chilled through and have a fever, that +we may ruin ourselves with doctors' bills; and all because you choose to +remain in the night air when you should be asleep." + +Pepita lay on her pillow, her eyes wide open in the darkness, her small +hot hand clutching against her breast something she had hung round her +neck by a bit of ribbon. It was the _devisa_ she had stolen from Jovita, +and which had not been thrown away at all. In the daytime it was hidden +in the bosom of her dress; at night it hung by a cord and her hand held +it. By this time a sort of terror had mingled itself with her passion of +anger and pain, and she lay trembling because she was saying to herself +again and again: + +"I am like Sarita! I am like Sarita!" + +She said it to herself a thousand times in the weeks and months which +followed, and which seemed to her helplessness like years. She said it +in as many moods as there were hours of the day. Sometimes with wild +unreasoning childish rage; sometimes with a shock of fear; sometimes in +a frenzy of shame; sometimes, as she stood and looked up the road, her +cheeks pale, her eyes dilated with self-pity and tears. + +"I am like Sarita! Yes--Sarita!" She remembered with superstitious +tremor all the things that had been said to her of the punishment that +would fall upon her because of her hard-heartedness. She remembered +Jovita's prophecies, and how she had mocked them; how cruel she had been +to those who suffered for her; how she had laughed in their faces and +turned away from their sighs. + +She remembered Felipe, whom she had not spared one pang--Felipe, at whom +she had only stared in scorn when he wept and wrung his hands before +her. Had he felt like this when she sent him back to Seville to despair? + +A cruel fever of restlessness burned her. She could find pleasure no +more in the novelties of the city, in the gayeties of the gardens, in +her own beauty. + +Sometimes she was sure it was magic--the evil-eye. And she slipped +away, poor child! and knelt in the still, cool church, and prayed to be +delivered. + +But once as she was doing this a sudden thought struck her. + +"Not to think of him any more," she said, knitting her brows with yet +another new pang. "Not to remember his face--not to remember his voice +and the words he said! No, no!" And her rosary slipped from her fingers +and fell upon the stone floor, and she picked it up and rose from her +knees and went away. + +All that day and night she thought and thought, and the next day went +to pray again--but not that she might be delivered. She brought to the +shrine at which she knelt substantial promises as offerings. Hers were +not the prayers of a saint, but of a passionate, importunate child, +self-willed and tempestuous. She would not have prayed if she could have +hoped for help from any earthly means. She had never prayed for anything +before. She had always taken what she wanted and gone her way; but she +had had few needs. Now in this strange anguish she could do nothing for +herself, and surely it was the place of the Virgin and the saints to +help her. She stormed the painted wax figure in its niche with appeals +which were innocently like demands. + +Make him come back--make him come back to her. Mother of God, he must +return! Make him come to the wall some night--yes, to-night. He must not +know that she was like Sarita, but he must come; and whatsoever she did +or said he must not go away again. She would sell her new necklace; the +silver comb her mother had left, her--the comb her father had given her +mother in the days of their courtship; she would do some work, and give +to the Holy Mother some candles and flowers; but he must come back, and +he must not go away again whatsoever she did. + +She knelt upon the stone floor, her hands wrung together, pouring forth +the same words breathlessly over and over, each reiteration more intense +than the last, all her young strength going out into the appeal. + +And still she had not yet reached the point of knowing what she should +do and say when he came. + +When she tried to rise to her feet she was obliged to make two efforts +before she succeeded. She had given such a passion of strength to her +siege that she was almost exhausted, and she went out into the dazzling +sunlight trembling. She did this day after day, day after day, and at +night she waited by the wall, but the road was always the same. + +And she could hear nothing--not a word. She could not ask, even though +sometimes as she sat and gazed at José with hungry eyes it seemed as if +she must drop dead if he did not speak. But he did not speak because he +could have told her but little, and was quite secure in his belief that +the mere mention of Sebastiano's name angered her. + +So the time went by--weeks and months--and at last one evening she went +to the church and prayed a new prayer. + +"Sacred Mother," she said, "I have sold the comb and the necklace, and +I have worked and can keep my word. I have bought a little golden heart. +And if he comes"--in a fainter whisper--"if he comes I will say nothing +ill to him." + +That night, for the first time, she heard of Sebastiano. + +Little Carlos came in and was full of news. + +"They say that Sebastiano has had great success, and that perhaps he +will go to America." + +"Where is America?" asked Jovita. + +"It is at the other end of the world, and never yet have the people seen +a bull-fight." + +"Never?" said José, staring. "That is impossible!" + +"It is true," answered Carlos. "And they are rich, and like new things; +and the king has spoken of sending for Sebastiano. He will be rich +enough to build a palace for his old age." + +A few days later, in the dusk of the evening, there crept into the +church a little figure familiar to the painted saints and the waxen +Virgin. But to-day it wore a changed aspect. It moved slowly at first, +reluctantly; the brilliant little face was pale; the eyes wild with +torture. A moment it stood before the altar, and then flung up its arms +with a fierce gesture. + +"Mother of God," it cried, brokenly, "then if it must be so--tell +him--tell him that I am like Sarita!" and fell upon the altar steps +shuddering and sobbing like a beaten child. + +[Illustration: Shuddering and sobbing like a beaten child 135] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +And yet it was again weeks and weeks before she heard another word. In +those weeks there were times when she hated José because he never once +spoke of what she wished to hear. She could not speak herself--she could +not ask questions; she could only wait--hungry and desolate. They would +not even say--these people--whether he had gone to the King of America +or not; whether he was at the other end of the world, or whether he +was only in some other city. The truth was that José had innocently +cautioned the others against speaking of one whom Pepita disliked to +hear of. + +"She does not like him," he said, sorrowfully. "Girls are like that +sometimes. It makes her angry when one talks of him." + +But slow as he was, he could not help seeing in time that something was +wrong with Pepita. Sometimes she scarcely talked at all, and she did not +flame up when Jovita grumbled; it seemed as if she scarcely heard. Her +eyes had grown bigger, too, and there was a burning light in them. They +always appeared to be asking something; often he found himself obliged +to look up, and saw them fixed upon him, as if they meant to wrest +something from him. The careless bird-like look had gone, the careless +bird-like laughter and mocking. He began gradually to fancy she was +always thinking of something that hurt and excited her. But then there +was nothing. She had all she wanted. She had as many trinkets as the +other girls; she had even more. She had so little work to do that she +had sought some outside her home to fill her spare moments, and she +loved no one. There was not a man she knew who would not have come +if she had smiled. What, then, could it be? And how pretty she was! +Prettier than ever; prettier because of the burning look in her eyes, +and--and something else he could not explain; a kind of restless grace +of movement, as if she was always on the alert. + +"Are you not pleased with Madrid any longer?" he asked her once. + +"Yes," she answered. + +"Do you want anything?" + +"No." + +"It seems to me," he said, slowly, and with much caution, "that you do +not amuse yourself as you did at first." + +"It is not so new," she said; "but there is still pleasure enough." And +for a moment she kept her great eager eyes fixed upon him, and then she +moved slowly toward him and touched him with a soft touch on his big +clumsy shoulder and said: "You are a good brother! You are a good +brother!" + +"I have always loved you," he said, with simple pride. "When we were +children, you know I always promised that you should see better days." + +She had forgotten to count the weeks and days, or to take note of +the changing seasons, when one hot day in the early summer he came +in--José--with an innocent joy in his face. + +He looked questioningly at Pepita two or three times and then coughed. + +"You will not mind now," he said. "It is so long ago, and it is all +over. Sebastiano has come back. He did not go to America; he is in +Madrid to-day. He came to me in the street; he did not avoid me; he was +rejoiced to see me. It appears that it is all well with him. Afterward +Manuel told me. It appears there is a very pretty girl he met in +Lisbon--she is here now. It is said he will marry her." + +Pepita clinched her hands and stared at him with eyes that burned as +never before. + +"It is not true!" she said through her teeth. "It is not true!" + +José fell back two steps. + +"Not true?" he stammered. "Why not? They say so." + +"A man who slays bulls as he does," she said, "does not forget a woman +in a day." + +José was lost in amazement. + +"I thought you believed nothing but ill of him," he said. "What has +happened? You are angry--angry." + +"It is not true about the girl from Lisbon," she said. "It is a lie they +amuse themselves with." + +Never had innocent José been so thunderstruck. This was beyond his +understanding. He was afraid to speak, and kept looking sidewise at her +as he ate his soup; but she said no more. + +"What has happened?" he said to himself over and over again. "Will she +not allow him to marry another, though she does not want him herself?" + +Later he went out again. It must be confessed that he went in the +hope of seeing Sebastiano, or at least hearing of him. There was +no difficulty in hearing of him. In the wine-shops and at the street +corners he was being talked of in every group. Of what else could people +speak who knew he had returned? How there would be sport--how there +would be pleasure! Life began to wear a more vivacious aspect. And what +had he not done since he had left Madrid? Such success--such adulation! +The impression among his adorers was that the whole world had been at +his feet. Here and there one could hear snatches of song of which his +name was the refrain. It was only because he so loved his own people +that he had refused the magnificent offers made by the King of America. +He had refused them; he had chosen to remain in Spain. He had come to +Madrid. Soon he would appear before them again. He had even gained in +strength and dexterity; and as to his good looks--ah! what a dashing, +handsome fellow! + +José had the good luck to see him again, even to speak to him. What +fortune--what happiness! The honest fellow felt himself overjoyed. They +were to be friends again. + +It was quite late when he found himself walking homeward over the white +road again. He had drunk wine enough to make him feel quite gay; and +as he went he sang now and then a verse of a song about the joys of the +bull-fight. + +When he was about half-way home he thought he heard behind him the sound +of rapid feet--light feet running. He stopped and looked back. What was +it he saw, or thought he saw? Was it a small dark shape which flitted +instantly into the shadow of the trees? It looked like a woman who did +not wish to be seen. Well, he would not look, then. What was the use of +giving her trouble? He tramped on, perhaps a little more slowly. It was +late for a woman to be out on the lonely road alone. It must be past +midnight. Then the thought came to him that perhaps she wished to pass +him. In that case he might look the other way, on the opposite side of +the road. In fact, he crossed to the other side to leave the way clear, +and went on good-naturedly, singing his song loudly and all out of +tune. Yes, he had been right. Soon the footsteps drew nearer; the shadow +within the shadow slipped past--ran swiftly. But by that time they were +nearing his home, and there was a stretch of road unshaded by anything. +The shadow hesitated, darted across the white space, and José, seeing it +in the full light, uttered a cry, and started in pursuit. In but a +few moments he had reached it and held it by the arm, feeling all the +slender body breathless and panting. + +[Illustration: The slender body breathless and panting 147] + +"Pepita!" he cried. "It is you?" + +She let the mantilla drop from her face and stood and looked at him. + +"Yes," she answered, "it is Pepita; and you need not ask--I will not +tell you. I have been to--to look at something--and I will tell you +nothing." + +He put his hand up and rubbed his forehead violently. Then he let it +drop. + +"I shall not ask," he said. "You would do no wrong. You are a good girl; +but--" + +"You think I have gone mad," she said, with a sudden change of voice +and a piteous little shiver. "Who knows? Perhaps some one has cast the +evil-eye upon me. But I have done no harm, and I shall do none." + +"No," he said, rather stupidly. "You would do no harm. Let us go in, +then." + +And without another word they went into the house, Pepita to her bed +to be awake and gaze at the darkness, José to sit with his head in his +hands and thinking a thousand wild thoughts until he fell asleep. + +He could not know that where he had been she had been also; that when +the snatches of song had been sung she had heard them; that when the +people had talked of Sebastiano she had listened; that when Sebastiano +had stood in the bright light she had stood in the shadow and watched. +She had not thought of danger or of being discovered. She had only +thought of one thing and listened for one thing--and once she had heard +this thing discussed by some chattering young chulos. + +[Illustration: She is a pretty young girl 151] + +"She is a pretty young girl," they said. "Not as pretty as that other, +but handsome enough. She was a little devil, that other. But it is a +mistake for a man like him to marry. How can a man feel free to risk his +life gayly when he has a woman hung about his neck?" + +"He will not," she whispered, growing hot all over. "No, he has not +forgotten. I have given the little heart and the flowers and candles. +And he could not forget while I--He will come back." + +She struggled with the passionate persistence of a child. Since she +would not give him up, he was hers. + +But she did not know what to do. There was nothing but to wait in this +fever of strange misery and unrest, which grew more cruel every day; +and at the bull-fight if he would only look--perhaps--yes, if he saw her +face, he would understand and come. + +In the days before the great entertainment took place she was like +some little savage creature at bay. She could scarcely bear to hear +the voices of those who spoke to her. Once she went into the church and +threw herself upon her knees as usual, but when she looked up her eyes +were fierce. + +"If he does not come," she cried to the waxen Virgin, "I will pray to +you no more--no more." + +She knew that it was blasphemy, but she did not care; and before she +went home she bought a sharp little knife and hid it in her breast. + +"This," she whispered, "this--if it is true about the girl from Lisbon; +but it is not true." + +For many years afterward the day of the great bull-fight was remembered. +No one who saw it forgot it as long as he lived. Affairs used to date +from it in the minds of many. + +A year had passed since that first brilliant day when Pepita had gone +forth in her first festal dress. She remembered it all as she dressed +herself on this other morning. The same day seemed to have come again; +the same sunshine and deep blue sky. There were the same flowers nodding +their heads; Jovita was grumbling a little in her haste, just as she had +done then; and in the looking-glass there was the same little figure in +the bright attire--the soft black hair, the red rose, the red mouth. As +she looked, a sudden triumph made her radiant. + +"I have not grown ugly," she said. + +No, she had not grown ugly. She was too young and strong for that, and +excitement had flushed her into new brilliance. + +When she found herself seated among the fluttering fans of rainbow +colors, that moment's glow of exultation left her. Strangely enough, she +could not help thinking of the empty church and the waxen figure before +which she had knelt, and then of the nights when she had stood watching +by the wall, and then of the sharp little knife in her breast. And then +came the clamor of the music and the grand entry of the moving stream of +color and glitter dazzling her eyes. No; just at first she had not the +power to look. Could it be she--Pepita--who felt dizzy and could not +see? who could distinguish nothing in the splendid panorama of the +triumphal march? And what clamor, what excitement there was on every +side! "What bulls! What men!" they were saying about her. + +Only she seemed, in the midst of all the loud-voiced eagerness and +delight, to sit alone, a cold little figure vaguely tormented by the +gayety and the voices and the color of fluttering fans and ribbons and +costumes. The deep rose had fled from her face; she sat with her hands +wrung on her knee and waited for one moment to come. + +The great bull ran bellowing around the arena; little beribboned darts +were flung at him and stuck in his shaggy shoulders; brilliant cloaks +were flaunted in his face; taunting cries mocked him. He charged hither +and thither in blind fury, scattering men and horses, who only returned +again to the attack. + +"It takes too long," communed Pepita, "It takes too long." + +And then the voices began to call for Sebas-tiano. "Sebastiano! +Sebastiano!" on every side--even the grand ladies and their cavaliers +clapping their hands and calling also. The beauties in the high places +were always ready to see him come, and to give him a welcome when he +risked his life to amuse them. + +He stepped forth in his rich dress and with his gallant bearing, a +more beautiful and gay figure than ever, it seemed the excited people +thought. He had grown finer, without doubt, they said. His face was a +little pale, but that only made more beautiful his long dark eyes, under +their dense, straight, black lashes. It was the women who said this, and +who saw the richness of his dress, the colors of his _devisa_, the +close curl of his crisp hair, the grace of his movement. The men saw his +superb limbs, his firm step, his quick glance, his bright sword. + +"Come, little slayer of bulls," they shouted, "and show us what you +would have taught the people of America." + +And it appeared they were not to be disappointed in their expectation +of sport. They saw that when he stood before the bull and made a little +mocking bow of salute, he looked into its small, furious eyes with a +smile, as it drew near--a bellowing black mass, snorting and throwing up +the dust. It was as ready to begin as he. It rushed upon him, and he was +gone. He played with it, led it on, defied it, eluded it. The flashing +sword seemed to become a score of glittering blades; the people +shouted--rose in their seats--leaned forward--laughed--mocked the +bull--cried out praises of sword and man and beast--of each leap--each +touch of the steel's point. + +"He plays with it as if it were a little lamb," they cried. "Sebastiano! +Sebastiano!" + +Of what use to tell what must be seen in all its danger to be +understood? The joy and exultation rose to fierce fever-heat, the cries +swelled higher, faces flushed and eyes sparkled and flamed, while the +brilliant figure darted, leaped, attacked, played with death as it had +done scores of times before. + +Only Pepita sat without color or applause--only Pepita's fan was +motionless amidst all the fluttering--though her breast moved up and +down, and the throbbing in her side was like the beating of a hammer. +She was speaking to herself, though her lips were closed; she was +speaking to Sebastiano. + +"He will look soon," she was saying. "He will look as he did that first +day. My eyes will make him look. They will force him to it. Listen! +it is Pepita whose eyes are on you. You must feel them. You have not +forgotten. No. And it is Pepita--Pepita!" + +All the strength of her body and soul she threw into her gaze--all the +fire of her young wildly beating heart and throbbing pulses. + +"You must hear," she said. "Pepita! Pepita!" + +And unconsciously she leaned forward so that her white face and great +eyes, and the little black head with the rose burning in its hair, stood +out among the faces of those about her. + +And he looked up and saw her, and their eyes met; and without knowing +she started to her feet. + +No one knew, no one but herself saw, how it happened: even she did not +understand until all was past. Their eyes met, as they had done on the +day a year before. No, not as they had done then, but with a strange +new look. Sebastiano started; the arena swam before him; there was a +second--a fatal second in which he saw only a small face without color +and the red rose which was the color of blood. Then there was a roar +near him--a roar among the people--a wild shriek from the women. The +bull was upon him; he made a misstep, and was caught, amid the shrieks +and bellows, and flung inert far out upon the hoof-trodden dust with the +blood pouring from his side. + +"But," they said in the wine-shops at night, "when they took him up, +though they thought him gasping in death, he had not lost himself; and +as they carried him out they came upon a girl--the one who is called +'the pretty sister of José'--her brother was taking her away. She looked +like one dead three days; and Sebastiano--there is a man for you!--tore +the _devisa_ from his shoulder and dropped it at her feet; and she +snatched it up--all wet with his blood--and thrust it in her breast, and +dropped like a stone. It is said that he loved her, and she had a devil +of a temper and treated him badly. He is a good fellow--her brother +José--and wept like a child for Sebastiano, and has begged to be allowed +to nurse him, and Sebastiano will have it so." + +"I am strong as an ox," José had said, weeping. "I can watch like a dog. +I want neither sleep nor food, if it comes to that; and once when one of +my comrades fell from a scaffold I was the only one who could nurse him +without killing him with the pain. He will tell you that I nursed him +well, and was never tired." + +"Let him stay," said Sebastiano. + +In his struggle with death, which lasted so long, it was always the +large form and simple, anxious face of José he saw when he knew what +passed around him, and even when the fever brought him delirious visions +he was often vaguely conscious of his presence. For himself, he did not +know whether he was to live or die; but one night he found out. + +It was a beautiful night which came after a long day in which those +about his bed had looked at him with pitying eyes, and at last a priest +had come and absolved him of his sins, and left him with a solemn, +kindly blessing, with a soul clear of stain and ready for paradise. + +He had fallen asleep afterward, and had dreamed not of heaven but of +earth, of a red rose in soft black hair, and of a passionate little face +whose large eyes glowed upon him. + +And suddenly he was wide awake, and found his dream a living truth. + +José was no longer in the room. The moonlight made everything clear, and +upon the floor beside him knelt Pepita, her eyes fixed upon his. + +[Illustration: Dios! Dios! he murmured 163] + +"Dios! Dios!" he murmured. + +"Hush!" she said. "Do not speak. It is Pepita. Look at me. They said +that perhaps to-night you would die. I have prayed until I can pray no +more, and when I came to José the tears were falling from his eyes, and +he said perhaps you would not see the day. Then I showed him the little +knife hidden in my breast, and told him if he did not let me come to you +alone I would not live. I said I could force you to remain on earth. +I love you--I love you. It has all happened, that which you said would +happen; and when the _devisa_ fell at my feet I hid it in my breast with +the other which was there before. And because I love you so, you cannot +die. I will do anything you say I must do. I am Pepita, and I give +myself to you. I would give my blood and my life and my soul for you. +Every night I have waited by the wall in the hope that you would come. +I have watched you when you did not see me. If you had not come I should +have killed myself; if you die, I will drive the knife to its hilt in my +heart. I can love more than those women who love so easily and so often. +I knew nothing about it when I was so proud and mocked you. I know now. +Mother of God! it is like a thousand deaths when one cannot see the face +one wants. What hunger night and day!--one is driven mad by it!" + +She bent more closely over him, crushing his un wounded hand against her +heart--searching his soul with her look. + +"They said there was a girl in Lisbon whom you loved," she said. "I knew +it was a lie." + +"Yes," he whispered, "it was a lie. Kiss me on the mouth." + +His arm curved itself around her neck, and the red lips which had mocked +melted upon his own. + +"Did you suffer?" he murmured. + +She began to sob like a child, as she had sobbed at the feet of the +Virgin. + +"I told you that you would suffer! It was the same thing with me. Saints +of Heaven! human beings cannot bear that long. I shall not die, and I +will make you forget the pain. Stay with me, and let me see your eyes +and touch your lips every hour, that I may know you are Pepita, and that +you have given yourself to me." + +"I will stay through all the day and night," she answered. "They cannot +make me go away if I do not wish it. They always give me my way. I have +always had it--the Virgin herself has given it to me." + +It seemed this was true. In a few months from then the people who +strolled in the Public Garden on Sunday looked at a beautiful young +couple who walked together. + +"There are two who are mad with love for each other," it was said. +"Sebastiano and his wife. She is the one he threw his _devisa_ to when +he thought himself a dead man. They used to call her 'the pretty sister +of Jose.'" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pretty Sister Of José, by +Frances Hodgson Burnett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRETTY SISTER OF JOSÉ *** + +***** This file should be named 25726-8.txt or 25726-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/2/25726/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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