When the Spaniards had finally discovered
their mistake and had ceased riding one another down, when lights
came and he heard Colonel Cobo cursing them like one insane, he
had wriggled away, crossed the calzada, and hidden in the woods
until dawn. He had been walking ever since; he had come home to
die.
Rosa heard only parts of the story, for her mind was numbed, her
heart frozen. Her emotion was too deep for tears, it paralyzed her
for the time being; she merely stood staring, her dark eyes
glazed, her ashen lips apart. Finally something snapped, and she
knew nothing more until hours afterward, when she found herself
upon her comfortless bed with Evangelina bending over her. All
night she had lain inert, in a merciful stupor; it was not until
the next morning that she gradually came out of her coma.
Then it was that the negress was really alarmed, fearing that if
the girl did rally her mind would be affected. But Rosa was young
and, despite her fragility of form, she was strong--too strong, it
seemed to her, and possessed of too deep a capacity for suffering.
How she ever survived those next few days, days when she prayed
hourly to die, was a mystery. And when she found that she could at
last shed tears, what agony! The bond between her and Esteban had
been stronger than usually exists between sister and brother; he
had been her other self; in him she had centered her love, her
pride, her ambition.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197