Chata and Chinita, Chapters XXXIII-XXXV [pp. 2-24]

1887.] Chata and Chinita 11
should you come?" she asked. "Had reading had filled his mind with thoughts of
you a vow? If I had known and loved the the same possibi~ities that racked her own.
dead man, it would have been to kill the He spoke of them briefly in a single senman who struck him in secret that I would tence: "~Ve found by his letters that he
have come. But it is as the Captain Ruiz believed himself married; it was to find the
says: the blood of an Amencan runs so woman he had loved, or any trace of her,
slowly, it cools his heart, while ours is a that I came."
burning torrent, that causes the soul to leap Chinita sat so still one might have
and the hand to smite at a word." doubted if she heard; but that very still Ashley realized that impatient contempt ness convinced Ashley that she listened
of him was struggling with a feeling to which, with an absorbing interest, too great for
with sudden apprehension of its importance, questioning. She could but wait breathshe dared not give utterance; or perhaps lessly for what was to come.
the idea that had long been shaping itself "After long and vexatious wanderings I was
was for the moment obscured, hut yet in taken wounded to Tres Hermanos," continthe darkness and confusion was growing to ued the young man. "There,when my hope
an overwhelming certainty in her mind. She was almost exhausted, I heard the name
had risen to her feet, but suddenly she sat that had been in my mind so long-heard it
down, covering her face with a hand which, only to make inquiries which ended in confuAshley saw in the dim light, shook with sion, and threatened to involve me in endsuppressed excitement. Her attitude was less complications; so at last I was glad to
that of a listener; and in a low voice he suffer myself to be convinced that my contold her of his boyhood, of the days when jectures were the mere vagaries of an overhe had come in from school and stood at burdened fancy, a too scrupulous conscienc~
the shoulder of his grown cousin, the young and to turn my face homeward, determined
man with the silky shadow just darkening his that thereafter I should live my life, and
upper lip, and with the clear, frank eyes of take in peace the goods fortune sent me.
a boy, who looked so eagerly forward into In such a mind, I rode with the troop across
the active life of manhood, restive under the plain, and up the desolate hillside,
the restraints and cautions that hampered along which the scattered graves of the
him, until, at last, he broke away, and was poor lay, the mounds scarce noticeable
no more seen, nor scarcely heard of, until among the rocks and cacti. Pepe' rememthe news of his early and violent death bered your jesting command; it would give
came to cast an unending gloom over the him an opportunity to withdraw from the
household, which before had been captious, troops unheeded. He invited me to go
foreboding, but ever loving, ever secretly with him to see something that would interproud of the bold, irrepressible spirit it could est me. ~7hen I saw the grave, my heart
not chain to its standard of decorum, or began to beat; when I read the name upon
tame to walk in the narrow path of unevent- the fallen cross, the blood rushed into my
ful and passionless existence. The years of eyes and suffocated me; every drop in my
his own youth he passed lightly by; there heart accused me! There lay my cousin
was nothing in them for comment until he murdered, and in looking for a possible
came to the time of his aunt's death, his in- claimant to his name, I had forgotten him!
heritance of the fortune that should have I had forgotten that his death was still unbeen John Ashley's, the reading of those atoned for, the murderer undiscovered-unfew letters which had given to Mary Ashley sought-unpunished."
such strange dreams, and which in the re- Chinita dropped her hand from her face