Beyond the bay, twenty miles distant, a range
of hazy mountains hid the horizon. Facing to the south, Esteban
looked up the full length of the valley of the San Juan, clear to
the majestic Pan de Matanzas, a wonderful sight indeed; then his
eyes returned, as they always did, to the Yumuri, Valley of
Delight. "Paradise indeed!" he muttered. "I gave her everything.
She gained nothing by dying."
With a grave thoughtfulness which proved him superior to the
ordinary slave, Sebastian replied:
"True! She had all that any woman's heart could desire, but in
return for your goodness she gave you children. You have lost her,
but you have gained an heir, and a beautiful girl baby who will
grow to be another Dona Rosa. I grieved as you grieve, once upon a
time, for my woman died in childbirth, too. You remember? But my
daughter lives, and she has brought sunshine into my old age. That
is the purpose of children." He paused and shifted his weight
uncertainly, digging his stiff black toes into the dirt. After a
time he said, slowly: "Excellency! Now, about the--well--?"
"Yes. What about it?" Esteban lifted smoldering eyes.
"Did the Dona Rosa confide her share of the secret to any one?
Those priests and those doctors, you know--?"
"She died without speaking."
"Then it rests between you and me?"
"It does, unless you have babbled.
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