Carmen Ariza Part 71

"Why, no, Anita dear, he is not a beast--we must love him, for he is G.o.d's child, too," said Carmen, patting the woman's wet cheek with her soft hand.

"He!--G.o.d's child!" She broke into a shrill of laughter. "_Carita_, he is Satan himself! You do not know him!"

"I don't mean that what you think you see is G.o.d's child, Anita dear; but that what you think you see stands for G.o.d's child, and isn't real. And if we know that, why, we will see the real child of G.o.d--the real man--and not what you call a beast."

Ana apparently did not hear. Her thought was with the future. Carmen looked about the room. "Oh, Anita," she exclaimed, "what a beautiful place, and what beautiful things you have!" She rubbed the tile floor with her bare foot. "Why, Anita dear, it is just like the palaces Padre Jose has told me about!" She walked around the room, touching the various toilet articles on the dresser, pa.s.sing her hands carefully over the upholstered chairs, and uttering exclamations of wonder and delight. "Anita--Anita dear! Why, it is a palace! Oh! oh!

oh!"

The woman looked up with a wan smile. "_Chiquita_, they are nothing.

They are all cheap trinkets--nothing compared with what there is in the big world beyond us. You poor dear, you have lived all your life in miserable little Simiti, and you haven't the slightest idea of what there is in the world!"

"But, Anita dear, Simiti is beautiful," the girl protested.

"Beautiful!" The woman laughed aloud. "My dear, simple little girl!

You have seen only this poor room, and you think it wonderful. I have been to Barranquilla and Cartagena with Padre Diego, and have seen houses a thousand times more beautiful than this. And yet, even those are nothing to what there is in the world outside."

Carmen went to the bed and pa.s.sed her hand over the white counterpane.

"Anita--why, is this--is this your--"

"Yes, _chiquita_, it is my bed. You have never seen a real bed, poor little thing."

"But--" the child's eyes were wide with wonder--"it is so soft--you sink way into it--oh, so soft--like the heron's feathers! I didn't sleep at all in the canoe--and I am so tired."

"You blessed lamb!" cried the woman, springing up and clasping the girl in her arms. "But--what can I do? When he returns, he may come right up here! _Santa Maria_, help me!--what shall I do?"

"Anita--let me sleep in your bed--it is so soft--but--" looking down dubiously at her muddy feet.

"Never mind them, child." The woman's face had set in grim determination.

She went to the dresser and took out a small stiletto, which she quickly concealed in the bosom of her dress. "Get right in, just as you are! I will take care of Diego, if he comes! _Santa Maria_, I will--"

"Anita dear," murmured the girl, sinking down between the white sheets, "you and I will just _know_ that G.o.d is everywhere, and that He will take care of us, and of Padre Diego too." With a sigh of contentment the child closed her eyes. "Anita dear," she whispered softly, "wasn't He good to bring me right to you? And to-morrow we will go back to Simiti--and to padre Rosendo--and Padre Jose--and--and Cantar-las-horas--you haven't seen him for such a long time--such a long--long--Anita dear, I--love--you--"

The child dropped asleep, just as a heavy step fell outside the door.

Ana sprang up and extinguished the lamp, then went quickly out into the rotunda. Padre Diego was standing on the top step, puffing and weaving unsteadily. The woman hurried to him and pa.s.sed an arm about his waist.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in a tone of feigned solicitation. "I feared you had met with an accident! My heart beats like the patter of rain! Why do you stay out so late and cause me worry?"

The bloated face of the man leered like a Jack-o'-lantern. "Spiritual retreat, my love--spiritual retreat," he muttered thickly. "Imbibing the spirits, you know." He laughed heavily at his coa.r.s.e joke.

The woman gave him a look of inexpressible disgust. "But you are home safe, at any rate," she said in a fawning voice; "and my fear is quieted. Come now, and I will help you into bed. Not in there!" she cried, as he lurched toward the door of the room where Carmen lay; "in your own room to-night!"

He swayed to and fro before her, as she stood with her back against the door.

"_Nombre de Dios_!" he muttered, "but you grow daily more unkind to your good Padre! _Bien_, it is well that I have a fresh little housekeeper coming!" He made again as if to enter the room. The woman threw her arms about his neck.

"Padre dear," she appealed, "have you ceased to love your Anita? She would spend this night alone; and can you not favor her this once?"

"_Caramba_!" he croaked in peevish suspicion, "but I think you have a paramour in there. _Bien_, I will go in and shrive his wicked soul!"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" cried the desperate woman, her hand stealing to the weapon concealed in her dress. "Pepito came this evening with the case of _Oporto_ which you ordered long ago from Spain. I put it in your study, for I knew you would want to sample it the moment you returned."

"_Caramba_!" he cried, turning upon her, "why do you not tell me important things as soon as I arrive? I marvel that you did not wait until morning to break this piece of heavenly news! _Bien_, come to the study, and you shall open a bottle for me. _Dios_! but my throat is seared with Don Antonio's vile rum! My parched soul panteth for the wine of the G.o.ds that flows from sunny Spain! _Caramba_, woman, give yourself haste!"

Suffering himself to be led by her, he staggered across the rotunda and into the room where long before he had entertained for a brief hour Don Jorge and the priest Jose. Ana quickly broke the neck of a bottle of the newly arrived wine and gave him a generous measure.

"Ah, G.o.d in heaven!" murmured the besotted priest, sinking into a chair and sipping the beverage; "it is the nectar of Olympus--triple distilled through tubes of sunlight and perfumed with sweet airs and the smiles of voluptuous _houris_! Ah, Lord above, you are good to your little Diego! Another sip, my lovely Ana--and bring me the cigarettes. And come, fat la.s.s, do you sit beside me and twine your graceful arms about my neck, while your soft breath kisses my old cheek! Ah, _Dios_, who would not be human! _Caramba_! the good G.o.d may keep His heaven, if He will but give me the earth!"

Ana drew his head against her bosom and murmured hypocritical words of endearment in his ear, while she kept his gla.s.s full. Diego babbled like a child. He nodded; struggled to keep awake; and at length fell asleep with his head on her shoulder. Then she arose, and, a.s.sured that he would be long in his stupor, extinguished the light and hurried to her own room.

Carmen was sleeping peacefully. The woman bent over her with the lighted candle and looked long and wistfully. "Ah, _Santa Maria_!" she prayed, "if you will but save her, you may do what you will with me!"

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she turned to the door and threw the bolt. Coming back to the bed, she again bent over the sleeping girl. "_Santa Virgen_!" she murmured, "how beautiful! Like an angel! _Dios mio_--and that beast, he has seen her, and he would--ah, _Dios_!"

Going again to the dresser, she took from a drawer a sandalwood rosary. Then she returned to the bed and knelt beside the child.

"Blessed Virgin," she prayed, while her hot tears fell upon the beads, "I am lost--lost! Ah, I have not told my beads for many years--I cannot say them now! _Santa Virgen_, pray for me--pray for me--and if I kill him to-morrow, tell the blessed Saviour that I did it for the child! Ah, _Santa Virgen_, how beautiful she is--how pure--what hair--she is from heaven--_Santa Virgen_, you will protect her?" She kissed the cross repeatedly. "_Madre de Dios_--she is so beautiful, so pure--"

Carmen moved slightly, and the woman rose hastily from her knees.

"Anita dear," murmured the child, "Jesus waked Lazarus--out of his--sleep. Anita, why do you not come? I am waiting for you."

"Yes, child, yes! But--_Dios mio_!" she murmured when Carmen again slept, "I am too wicked to sleep with so pure an angel!--no, I can not! I must not!"

She spread a light shawl upon the tile floor near the window and lay down upon it, drawing a lace _mantilla_ over her face to protect it from the mosquitoes. "_Santa Virgen_", she murmured repeatedly, "pray the blessed Saviour to protect her to-morrow--pray for her, _Madre de Dios_--pray for her!"

The piercing shriek of a steamboat whistle roused the woman just as the first harbingers of dawn spread over the river a crimson flush that turned it into a stream of blood. The child was asleep. Ana bent over her and left a kiss on her forehead. Then she stole out of the room and into the study. Padre Diego lay sunk in his chair like a monster toad. The woman threw him a look of utter loathing, and then hastily descended into the _patio_. Ricardo lay under the _platano_ tree, sleeping heavily. She roused him with a kick.

"Up, man!" she cried, shaking him by the shoulder. "Padre Diego sends you this money, and bids you go. He is well satisfied with your work."

She held out a roll of _pesos_.

The man, after much vigorous persuasion, got heavily to his feet.

"_Caramba, senorita_!" he muttered in a dazed voice. "That last _tragito_--it was a bit too much, no? But--_Bien_, I would see the good Padre. _Caramba_, my poor head! What rum! But, senorita, do me the great favor to ask the good Padre to see me one little moment. I must deliver this letter to him." He fumbled in his wallet and drew out an envelope.

"He will not see you, Ricardo. He--"

"_Caramba_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the man loudly, as his senses returned. "But I believe there is something wrong here! _Bien_, now I shall see the Padre! I am responsible to him!" He pushed the woman aside and entered the house.

Ana started after him, and seized his arm. A scuffle ensued, and Ricardo's voice was loud and shrill as they reached the stairs. The woman clung to him desperately. "Ricardo--anything you ask--double the amount, if you will go! Leave the house--I will tell the Padre--I will give him the letter--"

"_Caramba_, but I will see him myself!" shouted the lightheaded Ricardo.

"_Dios y diablo_!" A heavy voice rolled down from above. "_Bien, enamorada_, is this the paramour whom you hid in your room last night?

_Caramba_, you might have chosen a handsomer one!"

Ana sank down with a moan and buried her face in her hands. Diego heavily descended the stairs. "Ha, Ricardo!" he exclaimed, recognizing the man. "_Bien_, so it is you! And the girl?"

"I do not know, Padre," cried the man excitedly. "Senorita Ana, she made me drunk last night. I brought the girl--I waited for you, but the senorita--"