Isidorito had triumphed over his opponent as usual; for always the woman with whom he was conversing was in his eyes his opponent, and he believed in the necessity of involving her in the meshes of his logic, and of getting her close in his grasp, until he subdued her like a rebellious rival in the law. Thus he expected to win the admiration and respect of the feminine s.e.x. But the feminine s.e.x (be it said to its dishonor) not only did not admire Isidorito for his belligerent logic, for his sedateness, and for his vast legal knowledge, but it looked upon him with marked disfavor, and avoided his conversation as though it were a disgusting clatter. The Senorita de Mori, with whom he had carried on the most pugnacious argument on the nature of love and friendship, the sweets of remembrance, the bitternesses of forgetfulness, sympathy, and all else relating to the heart, in which he always came out instantly victorious, had learned to hate him like death. Consequently our wise youth was really more than a hundred leagues from the lovely heiress"s three thousand duros income, while he believed that he could touch them with his finger-tips. His never-failing sedateness, his self-possessed and serene eloquence, his long-tailed coats, his ideas of order, and his legal diction had aroused against him a prejudice as cruel as it was unjustified.
IN THE DE CIUDAD FALuA.
"Maria, Julia, Consuelo, just see how lovely the water feels when you put your hand in!"
"How lovely! how lovely!"
"You"ll wet your clothes, Amparo!"
"See what cunning white feathers the water makes between the fingers, Suarez!"
"Splendid!... but you"ll wet the sleeve of your dress."
"Wait a moment.... I am going to tuck it up.... There, that"s good....
Look! look!..."
"It still seems to me as though it would get wet.... Tuck it up a little more."
"More?"
"Yes."
"But I shall show my whole arm!"
"What difference does that make?"
"Be sensible; it isn"t the time to give one a cold.... Now it seems to me all right.... Uf! how cold this water is!... It isn"t noticeable on the hands, but on your arms! Look! Look how it jumps up!... If you put your palm flat against the current, it runs clear up your arm. Don"t you see how beautiful and clear it is to-day?"
"Speaking frankly, I will tell you," whispered the engineer in Amparo"s ear, "that at this moment my attention is attracted more by your fair arm!"
"If you don"t hush, you rogue, I shall spatter the water in your face,"
replied the girl, threatening him with her chaste vengeance.
"Though you should throw me into the river, I should still say so.... I am an artist, above all things, as you well know.... There is nothing so beautiful as the human form, ... when it is beautiful; and that arm of yours stands comparison with the most perfect models of the sculptor"s art."
"Come, come! don"t be absurd!... My arm is like any one else"s. The main thing is, that it is beginning to feel cold.... Whew! what water.[46] It seemed so warm at first!... And how it keeps on growing colder and colder, till at last it chills one to the bone!..."
"Take it out, take it out ... we must dry it!"
And Amparito obeyed, taking her arm out of the water, and innocently holding it towards the engineer, who began to wipe it with his handkerchief, lavishing upon it delicate attentions, and saying, at the same time:--
"But what a lovely arm you have, Amparito! How white! what soft skin!
and how round it is, above all!... A woman"s arm ought to be so, ...
round and slender, like that of the Venus di Medici ... the arm ought to diminish gradually and symmetrically to the wrist.... The truth is, with such an arm you ought to be worthy of being a sculptor"s model....
Well-formed women are scarce enough nowadays. To this is due the decay of sculpture, according to some critics.... If there were many like you, this certainly could not be said.... What an arm! what a lovely arm!...
You can"t imagine the pleasure I feel in touching it with my hand...."
The engineer, as he said this, suited the action to the word, and rubbed it so hard that Senor de Ciudad, who, with grim eyes, was watching the operation from the bow, could not help exclaiming, in an angry tone,--
"Amparo, please pull down your sleeve.... You most foolish girl!"
The girl blushed, and pulled down her sleeve. The engineer, not being able to evolve his artistic theories with his model in sight, renounced, for some time, the use of speech.
The faluas were now over against the Arenales. The sun had succeeded in making a few rifts in the veil of cloud, and was threatening, sooner or later, to rend it in pieces. The pencil of rays which penetrated through these rifts, and fell on the sand-hills, made them gleam like enormous flakes of gold, shedding their splendors over the whole breadth of the watery sheet; occasionally, when the sunbeams were cut off a moment by the interposition of some cloud, the splendors paled, and the sand a.s.sumed the grayish or gilded shades of webs of yellow silk. The voyagers all agreed that those sand wastes gave a very good idea of the deserts of Africa; and Don Mariano expressed his opinion that it would be very easy to control the sand by means of feather-gra.s.s and other suitable vegetation, and soon convert them into magnificent groves of pines.
The valley, which in the midst of the way opened out till it acquired considerable breadth, became narrower again as it neared El Moral. The waters became more restless, revealing the proximity of the sea; the hills, protecting the village with their stony slopes and their bare, melancholy tops, likewise made it evident. The breath of the monster began to be felt, blowing freshly and proudly through the narrow mouth of the river; and far away could be heard the low, portentous beating of his heart. The faluas now and then pitched upon patches of foam, which came rolling over the water, like tatters torn from the mantle of some G.o.d who had been battling all the night with the monsters of the ocean.
They reached El Moral. Don Mariano had prepared for them a delicious luncheon in a large ware-house, which he owned there, and the numerous company gave one more proof that the sea breezes are the most excellent stimulant for the appet.i.te. When they had done good justice to it, and rested a little while, they re-embarked to continue their excursion. A short distance from El Moral was the mouth of the harbor from which they put out to sea, leaving on the starboard quarter the lighthouse tower set on a bluff. The sailors dropped their oars and hoisted the sails to take advantage of the fresh north-east wind which forced them ahead. It was eleven o"clock in the forenoon. The cloud veil had entirely vanished down the horizon, leaving in view a beautiful, diaphanous blue sky wherein the sun swam haughty and brilliant as never before. The sea stretched out before our voyagers" eyes like one enormous, measureless blue plain, shutting in on all sides the celestial vault to collect its light and its harmony. Above this azure plain the luminous disk of the sun made a wide path of shining silver peopled with tremulous, sparkling gleams and extending in a direct line towards the east. In each one of the crests which the breeze raised on the water the sunbeams left a fugitive, vivid light which, on mingling and joining with the rest in an incessant dance, seemed like the monstrous, fantastic ebullition of the treasures hidden in the depths of the ocean. The voyagers followed that silvery path with their gaze, and did not open their lips for a long time, enjoying the deeply fine and solemn impression which the sea always makes on the mind. The outlines of the island, dimmed and confused by the excess of light, stood out opposite the very mouth of the river, about five miles from the coast. Around it could be seen great flocculent shreds of foam which alternately grew and narrowed down again, girdling it with a white belt of lace-work. The wind blew strong, but with generous benignity, for it had plenty of room to exercise its powers. The three faluas, with sails spread, cut through the water, one behind the other, like so many sea-gulls chasing them. The cordage whistled, the masts creaked in the holes imprisoning them, and the sails bellied under the breath of the breeze which tipped the boats more than was relished by the ladies. The water, as it pa.s.sed, broke into foam, making a musical murmur against the bow, and sliding along on both sides with a rustle like the unrolling of silk.
Don Serapio felt himself attacked by a maritime ecstasy, and, holding his hat in one hand and gesticulating dramatically with the other, he sang:--
"How blessed that man who can number His joys on the ocean; For the billows rock him to slumber With somnolent motion."
The almost imperceptible voice of the proprietor of the canning-factory had the honor of joining in with the eternal concert of the seas, like one of so many noises of tumbling billows or rattling pebbles. The wind would not deign to carry it twenty yards away.
The faluas, as they glided out on the swelling b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the waves, mounted and fell with a gentle, lazy motion which at first was delightful to the pa.s.sengers. They began to sway, softly closing their eyes with a smile of delicious content, surrendering themselves in full to the vague, poetic dreams awakened in their hearts by the sea. Who would have said, alas! that those who were dreaming so comfortably, and rejoicing in a smiling world of gentle fancies and gilded illusions, would be seen in a few minutes with heads sadly bent over the sea, necks leaning on the gunwale, as though it were a chopping-block, faces livid and eyes fixed upon the water, as though they were trying to sound the secret arcana of the ocean! Oh terrible fickleness of human affairs!
But what was taking place in the quarantine boat, that she should come about and leave her companions? An unforeseen contingency, and certainly one most annoying. Isidorito"s breakfast had played him false. Hardly were they clear of El Moral when he began to be pale and silent, though no one noticed it; but at last the pallor increased to such a degree that he really looked like a corpse. Then it was suspected that he was seasick, and they advised him to put his fingers in his mouth; but the munic.i.p.al attorney, very thoroughly acquainted with the tragedy at that moment enacting in his stomach, would not do any such thing, and begged humbly that, if it were possible, they should turn about and leave him on sh.o.r.e. All were stupefied at this proposition, and the falua continued on her swift course, as though she had not heard. But, after a time, Isidorito propounded it in a still more energetic manner, and the sailors were obliged to reply that, though it was not impossible, still, to return to sh.o.r.e would cost them an hour"s time. Another interval pa.s.sed. Isidorito got up suddenly, with his face convulsed, and, extending his right hand toward the sh.o.r.e, he exclaimed with a voice of mighty anguish, "Turn around, turn around for G.o.d"s sake, or I shall jump into the water!" Then the falua, not wanting to be an accomplice in a suicide, veered around, dropped sail, and, putting out oars, began to make its way, as quick as possible, to the nearest point on the sh.o.r.e.
There are reasons, however, for believing that the distinguished legal gentleman did not reach land in sufficient time. The Senorita de Mori felt sufficiently avenged for the many annoyances which his inflexible logic had occasioned her.
CHAPTER X.
THE EXCURSION CONTINUED.
Meantime the ocean, indifferent to the laughter and the discomfort of those petty insects which skim over its burnished surface, reflected the fire of the sun over all its immensity, enjoying this lofty pleasure with the same calmness as in the first days of the world. The light could wander freely over its humid surface, running leagues upon leagues in a second, shooting its blazes to the furthest confines of the horizon, or gathering them in a splendid bundle. It could sport over the foamy crests of its waves, or timidly kiss the diaphanous mirror of the waters, or spatter it with fine silver powder, or fall in a swoon with languid, voluptuous tremors, losing themselves amid the folds of the billows: nothing could change the solemn peace of his heart or cause him to utter a note lower or a note higher in the grandiose air in ba.s.so profundo which he has sung since the beginning of the world.
The outlines of the island now stood out with clearness, black and burnt as though they had just emerged from a fire. As they came nearer, the white belt, which from a distance seemed to girdle it, broke into a thousand separate pieces, a considerable distance from one another. The formidable roar as of mult.i.tudes fighting, chains dragging, and rocks crashing, came from that direction, announcing to our voyagers that they were approaching their destination. At the end of an hour they succeeded, not without difficulty, in effecting a landing on its rockbound sh.o.r.e; then they had to climb up by a narrow, perilous footway hollowed out of the rock, before they reached the solid, level land. The island did not deserve this name.[47] It was an islet two or three kilometers long, belonging to Don Mariano Elorza, who made use of it only for occasional hunting excursions, and for collecting a few hundred gulls" eggs from it every year. It was covered here and there with pines, but for the most part it was clad in furze, where hares and rabbits had their warrens: on nearly all sides it presented perpendicular cliffs to the sea, which beat incessantly against it, furiously rushing in and out of the hollows in the rocks everywhere abounding. Don Mariano had built in the centre a small house as a hunting-box which, little by little, he had provided with many conveniences. It contained only a large parlor, a dining-room, a few bedrooms, and the kitchen; but it was quite well furnished, and was surrounded by a small garden where a few shade-trees reluctantly grew.
While the dinner was in preparation and they were waiting for the quarantine falua, which had gone to deposit Isidorito like a melancholy exile on a barren coast, the ladies and gentlemen scattered about, devoting themselves to hunting and fishing, according to the tastes and dispositions of each. Shots began to be heard here and there, showing that the rabbits, which had multiplied in geometrical progression, suffered the law of repression discovered by Malthus. The voyagers who had not bloodthirsty instinct made themselves comfortable on the moss at the edge of the cliffs, contemplating the horizon from quarter to quarter, where the sail of some bark was often seen. Others studied the flora, plucking flowers and entering into long discussions about the cultivation which would suit that soil and the products which it might give. When everything was arranged, Don Mariano sent word by his servants, and one after the other the guests made their way back to the house and entered the parlor, where a splendid table had been improvised, loaded with viands and flowers. It took much labor and sufficient noise to seat so many people, but at last it was accomplished, thanks to the activity of the master of the house, greatly aided by the young man with the banged hair, whom we had the honor of meeting on the evening of the soiree, celebrated in honor of Dona Gertrudis.
The feast was worthy of Amphitryon. No gastronomic refinement was lacking; everything was wisely provided by an imagination familiar with culinary subjects and, as some one at the table was moved to say with truth, "life on a desert island was not so unhappy as it was pictured in Robinson Crusoe and other books." Each plate had before it five or six gla.s.ses which two servants were commissioned to keep filling successively with different kinds of wine according to the courses served. No one will be surprised, therefore, that after dinner was over there were enthusiastic toasts preceded by most eloquent speeches and accompanied by shouts, bravos, and congratulations of all sorts to the orator. Don Maximo cut them short by a few phrases, ill enough expressed but very touching, referring to the brevity of human life, to the vanity of pleasures, to the recompense which we shall have for our sorrows in another world, and other supernal subjects. The orator ended by shedding copious tears stirred by such funereal thoughts. Nevertheless, there were some who said in an undertone that Don Maximo"s _papalina_ was the least diverting that they had ever known. Then the engineer, Suarez, made a speech elegantly phrased and ornate, directed to emphasizing the importance enjoyed by woman in our civilization and the salutary changes which, thanks to her influence, had obtained in the manners of modern nations. He made a eulogy, as brilliant as it was finished, of her artistic abilities, declaring it to be much superior to man"s. He likewise spoke of her physical perfections, enumerating them with great satisfaction, and he ended by toasting her unconditionally as the most beautiful and exquisite work of creation, as the eternal and sweet companion of man. The Senoritas de Ciudad clapped their hands. Thereupon Don Serapio got up and with rather unctious speech proposed in concrete terms that the brilliant a.s.semblage who was hearkening to him should settle for good in the island, in order to populate it, and invited each one of those present to select as quickly as possible their partners.
The fact that at the end of his invitation he tipped a mischievous and impudent wink at one of the maid-servants who was helping at table raised against him a tempest of hisses and interruptions. Not being able satisfactorily to explain his behavior, Don Serapio grew very angry and went out into the kitchen, where, after a short time, was heard a ringing box on his ears.
Next followed the toasts, growing constantly more fiery and tempestuous, so that nothing that was said could be heard. One of the most famous was Mart.i.ta"s. By the advice of Ricardo, who sat by her side, she had drunk three gla.s.ses of champagne and did not know what was going on. The poor girl, so reserved and silent by temperament, began to let her tongue have free course, directing very facetious sallies at all present, who received them with rejoicing and applause. When a lady said that she was a little tipsy, she grew very serious and declared that she was only rather happy, which was nothing very strange considering that she was young. This repartee caused great laughter among the picnickers. When she was speaking, she kept fanning herself with her handkerchief. Her eyes, ordinarily so steady and serene, had acquired a strange loveliness and a malicious brilliancy which attracted the attention of Suarez, the engineer. The very timbre of her voice had notably altered, making it deeper and firmer. For the time being, she seemed like a woman in all the plenitude of her powers.
When they were tired of talking nonsense, Don Mariano had the tables removed from the parlor, so that the young people might dance. A piano, which had reached a dignified old age in that cloistered retreat, was called upon to mark the time of a mazurka with its cracked voice. As was to be expected, the dance from the first instant lost all ceremony and was converted into a whirlwind of hops, screams, and laughter. Marta, who was dancing with Ricardo, quickly said,--
"I can"t endure this heat! Don"t you want to go out into the fresh air for a little?"
"Let us go; I, too, am almost suffocated."
When they were in the garden, she said to him,--