Julia uttered a cry, and covered the paper with her hands.
Maximina stepped back in consternation.
"Excuse me; dear, you took me so by surprise," said Julia, smiling and very rosy.
"I am the one to ask pardon for having come in without knocking.... I did not think.... Go on, go on...." she added, with a mischievous smile that signified: "I know whom the letter is for!"
How far the innocent young woman was from suspecting the truth!
After she left the room, Julia finished her letter: ...
"Try to pacify mamma, and Miguel when he comes back. I think that in the end all will be satisfactorily arranged. Alfonso, though he is a little cold, is a perfect gentleman. Pardon and love your sister who takes her farewell of you alone.--_Julia._"
Don Alfonso had charged her again and again, and with great forethought, not for anything in the world to leave a written letter giving an intimation of where she was going. But by an impulse of her heart,--one of the many that are inexplicable,--it occurred to her to write to her sister-in-law, in whom she had perfect confidence.
"I am going now," she said, putting on a hat which had a thick veil to let down over her eyes. "It is dinner time already, and mamma will be expecting me. Just think! I have not seen her since last evening. I shall be back here again at ten o"clock."
They said good by at the door. Maximina gave her a kiss on her cheek as usual; she repaid it with a dozen so eager and affectionate that the young wife could not help exclaiming with a laugh:--
"How crazy you are!"
"Crazy? yes! and very crazy," she replied, as she went down the stairs, not turning her head.
Her kisses and the accent of those last words somewhat surprised Maximina, but she did not give much thought to them, and shut the door.
Juana was to accompany the young girl to her mother"s. When they reached the street, it was almost night. On coming to the Calle de Carretas, the senorita said:--
"Juana, do me the favor to go into that tobacconist"s and get a stamp and drop this letter into the box.... Can you read?" she added, fearing that she might notice to whom it was directed.
"No, senorita," replied the maid,[59] abashed. She went into the tobacconist"s, and Julia made her believe that she would wait for her at the door; but as soon as she saw her approach the counter, she ran down the street, and on reaching the carriage, the horses of which she knew, she opened the door and slipped in. Immediately a man"s voice was heard to say:--
"Drive hard, Julian, drive hard!"
The horses, lashed by the coachman, dashed along the avenue; they soon left behind them the centre of population, and galloped half frantically down Andalucia Avenue.
When they reached Jetafe, the train was already whistling in the distance. Don Alfonso bought tickets, and calling Julian aside, said:--
"To-morrow, if you should be asked, say that you drove me to Pozuelo for the train on the Northern Line; do you understand?"
"Depend upon me, senorito."
"Here," said he, giving him some bank-notes. "Take good care of the horses. I will shortly write you what you are to do."
The train rapidly carried the fugitives away, not toward Seville, but to Lisbon. At midnight, the _caballero_ having stepped out a moment, came back with a look of annoyance, saying that he had made a mistake, that they ought to have changed cars farther back. The girl was stupefied and dismayed.
"Don"t be so much alarmed, dear. Now instead of staying in some large town on this side where they might get knowledge of us by telegraph, it would be better for us to go into Portugal, and from there go directly to Seville."
Although the girl protested violently, she had no other remedy than to consent.
When they reached Lisbon, they took rooms at one of the best hotels. Don Alfonso promised his cousin to take her the next day to Seville. But a day pa.s.sed, and then a second and third, and they did not depart. The _caballero_ found one special pretext for postponing the journey. And this was that he had lost his luggage. He was waiting for the arrival of the telegram that he sent about it.
Julita during these days found herself in a state of great excitement, so that she pa.s.sed instantly and alternately from noisy and unreasonable gayety to deep and extravagant melancholy. Sometimes she grew angry with her cousin and overwhelmed him with taunts and threatened to escape alone or to inform the police; then she would throw herself into his arms and ask his pardon. In the midst of the deepest sadness her lover would begin to mimic in grotesque fashion the accent of the maid who served them, and the girl would laugh like a lunatic. At other times she grew enthusiastic at the view of the bay and the royal palace of Cintra.
The wily _caballero_ humored her with the most delicate and affectionate attentions. When she lost her temper, he would allow her to recover from it without saying a word; when she was sad, he would do everything to enliven her; when finally he saw that she looked contented, he would take advantage of such moments to go out to walk with her, giving her his arm as though they were husband and wife. They were regarded as a newly married couple by the people at the hotel.
Nevertheless, on the fourth day of their visit, as they were in their sitting-room after breakfast, Don Alfonso leaning back in an easy-chair, smoking his cigar, she standing in front of the mirror getting ready to go out, the _caballero_ said, accompanying his words with an ambiguous smile:--
"Do you know what I am thinking, Julita?"
"No; what?"
"That I am greatly delighted with this way of living with you!"
"But I am not," replied the young girl, dryly.
"Why, what objection do you have to it?"
"I object to living in a state of mortal sin; I wish to ask mamma"s pardon and to be married to you."
"Now the very thing that I enjoy most is living in this extra-legal way.
We are two birds flown from the nest and winging our flight through the air. How jolly it is to be so alone and so free! Could we possibly be happier because a dirty and ignorant priest had jabbered a few Latin words before us?"
Julita, on hearing this and noticing the somewhat mocking tone in which Don Alfonso spoke, felt a cold chill run down her back, and she dropped her arms which she had raised to arrange her hair. She stood a moment or two in suspense, and then turning her pale face toward him, she said deliberately, in an unnatural voice:--
"It seems to me that I could not have heard such coa.r.s.e and vile words come from your mouth."
"Why do you call them vile, child? All that I did was to give you my opinion without taking the trouble to consider whether it was good or bad," replied the _caballero_ laughing.
"Hush! hush! Alfonso.... There are moments when my imagination is filled with ideas so horrible that if they stayed long I am certain that I should go mad and throw myself out of the window."
As she said this, she flung her hat on the toilet table and came and sat down on the sofa, remaining with her head sunk low and her hands crossed in meditative att.i.tude. Great tears began to roll down her cheeks.
"Crying?" asked the _caballero_, approaching her.
The girl raised her eyes gleaming with fury and looked at him.
"Crying! yes!" she said in an exasperated tone. "And why not? What do you care for my tears? I wish to go home immediately! do you hear? I wish to go now ... this very instant."
"Calm yourself, Julia."
"I do not wish to calm myself. Why am I here with you, I should like to know? Do me the favor to take me home again. Though my mother should kill me, I wish to go to her instantly, do you hear?"
Don Alfonso made no answer; he wisely allowed a few minutes to pa.s.s so that she might recover a little. Then he said in a m.u.f.fled and melancholy voice:--
"Well then, if you are already tired of me I will take you back to Madrid again.... I supposed that your love was a little more substantial.... I made a mistake. Patience.... My conscience does not reproach me in the least. Since we left Madrid I have done all that I could to treat you in a straightforward manner. Circ.u.mstances brought us here and have retained us against my will.... However, we will start as soon as you like. The truth is, we have waited long enough for that miserable luggage.... Now I am going to tell you something," he added in a broken voice. "If in any respect during these last days I have done anything to hurt your feelings, forgive me. I love you and regard you as my lawful wife, because you are in the sight of G.o.d and you will be very soon before men ... that is, if you accept me as a husband and do not return."
Julia, likewise moved, gave him her hand which he hastened to kiss.
They became reconciled.