Chata and Chinita—Chapters I-XX [pp. 1-11]

1886.] Coata and UCl'ita. 9
stood, was void; it met the requirements of ed, and yet were the most powerful factors
neither church nor state. Yet-yet-yet- amid the love, the honor, the pride, the pasthere were possibilities; her family were sions, and prejudices which controlled her
powerful, her wealth was great. being.
Dofia Feliz watched her with deep, enquir- For a time she stood in the center of her
ing eyes. Her child stood there, avoiceless apartment, striking unconsciously with her
pleader, her utter abandonment of grief ap- clenched hand upon her breast, blows that
pealing to the heart of the mother; but be- at another time would have been keenly felt,
tween them was the impregnable wall of but the swelling emotions within rendered
pride. She came to no determination, made her insensible to mere bodily pain. Indeed,
no resolve, but clasping her hands over her as the moments passed it brought a certain
eyes, stood as if a gulf had opened in her relief; and as her walking to and fro brought
path, from which she could not turn, and her at last in front of the window, which
over which she dared not pass. Slowly, at opened upon the broad prospect to the west,
last, she dropped her arms, resumed her she paused, and looked long and-fixedly tousual composure, and passed from the room. wards the reduction works, as if her vision
For some moments the little group she had could penetrate the stone walls, and read the
left remained motionless. A profound still- mind which had perished with the man who
ness reigned throughout the house. Time it- lay murdered within them.
self seemed arrested, and the one word As she stood thus, she presently became
breathed through the silence seemed to de- aware that a sound-which she had heard
scribe the whole world to those within the without heeding, as one ignores passing viwalls. "Dead! dead! dead!" brations upon the air, that bring no special
echo of the life of which we are active, con ~V.~~ ~scious parts-was persistently striving to
make itself heard; and with an effort she
As Dofia Isabel Garcia turned from her turned to the door, upon which fell another
daughter's apartment, she stepped into a cor- timid knock, and bade the suppliant enterridor flooded with the dazzling sunshine of a for the very echo of his knocking properfect morning, and as she passed on in her claimed a suppliant. She started as her
long black dress, the heavily beamed roof in- eyes fell upon the haggard face of Pedro the
terposed between her uncovered head and gatekeeper.
the clear and shining blue of the sky, there He entered almost stealthily, closing the
was something almost terrible in the stony door softly behind him. "Sefora," he whisgaze with which she met the glance of the pered, coming up to her quite closely, exwoman servant who hurried after her, to tending his hands in a deprecating way