Marianela 11
"I did not say anything--son of my soul.--I was only thinking.--Yes, it
is high time we should turn homewards. It will soon be dinner-time."
"Well, come along, you shall dine with me, and bye-and-by we will go
out again. Give me your hand; I will not have you leave me."
When they reached home, Don Francisco was in the forecourt with two
other gentlemen; Marianela recognized the engineer of the mines and the
stranger who had lost his way in La Terrible the night before.
"Here are the _Señor ingeniero_," said she, "and his brother--the
gentleman of last evening."
All three men gazed with evident interest at the blind youth as he
approached.
"We have been expecting you some time, my son," said the father, taking
his hand and introducing him to the doctor.
"Let us go indoors," said the engineer.
"Blessings on all men of science with good hearts!" exclaimed Don
Francisco, turning to the doctor. "Walk in, gentlemen; happy is the
hour when you enter my house."
"Now, let us study the case," murmured Golfin.
When Pablo and the two visitors had gone in, Don Francisco turned to
Mariquilla, who was standing transfixed and doubtful in the middle of
the court-yard, and said kindly:
"You see, Nela, you may as well go home. My son will not be able to go
out this afternoon." And then, seeing that still she did not move, he
added:
"You may run round to the kitchen. Dorotea will give you something
nice."
CHAPTER VIII.
AND YET MORE.
The following day Pablo and his guide set out at the same hour; but,
as the sky was overcast and a disagreeable breeze was blowing which
threatened to become a south-westerly gale, they decided on making
their walk a short one. Crossing the village green of Aldeacorba, they
went along the great slope above the mines to the west, intending to
go down into the excavations.
"Nela, I must tell you something that will make you leap with joy,"
said the blind lad when they were at some distance from the house. "My
heart is bursting with happiness.--I feel as if the whole Universe, all
the sciences, history, philosophy, natural history--all that I have
ever learnt had got inside me, and was dancing in procession. You saw
those two gentlemen who were waiting for me yesterday...."
"Don Cárlos and his brother...."
"He is a famous doctor who has been all over America, making wonderful
cures.--He is come to see his brother, and as Don Cárlos is a great
friend of my father's, he asked his brother to examine me. How kind
and gentle he is! First he sat talking to me; he asked me a number
of questions, and told me all sorts of pleasant and amusing stories.
Then he told me to sit quite still; I felt his fingers on my eyelids,
and after a long time he said something I did not understand--medical
terms, and my father never read me anything about medicine. Then he
led me close to the window, and while he examined my eyes with some
instrument the room was as quiet.--Then he said to my father: "It is
worth trying." They said more, but in a low voice that I might not
hear, and I think they talked partly by signs. When the visitors were
gone, my father said to me: 'Son of my soul, I cannot conceal from you
the joy that is in me. This man, this angel from Heaven, has given
me a hope--a very faint hope--but we cling most to a hope when it is
smallest. I try to give it up by telling myself it is impossible--no,
almost impossible--but it sticks to me like a burr.'--This was what my
father said, and I could hear in his voice that he was crying. What are
you doing, Nela? Are you dancing?"
"No.--Here I am, close to you!"
"But you used to dance when I told you anything that made me happy.
Where shall we go to-day?"
"It is a dull day--we will go as far as Trascava, that is a sheltered
spot, and then go down into La Terrible."
"Very well, just as you like.--Oh, Nela! If only it could be true; if
God would have pity on me, and grant me the joy of seeing you. Even
if I could only see for one day, and were blind again the next, how I
would thank Him."
Nela said nothing. After feeling at first intensely happy, she now
walked on thoughtfully, with her eyes fixed on the ground.
"Many wonderful things happen in the world," Pablo went on. "And God's
mercy works in strange ways--strikes as suddenly as his wrath. It comes
upon us unexpectedly, after long punishment and torment, just as his
anger falls on us in the midst of happiness which has seemed secure and
eternal--do you not think so?"
"Yes--what you hope will be accomplished."
"How do you know?"
"My heart tells me so."
"Your heart tells you! And why should not such warnings come true?"
cried Pablo, fervently. "Yes--such chosen souls as yours can, in some
cases, foresee the issue. I have noticed it in myself, for, as I am
not diverted from self-inspection by seeing things outside me, I have
perceived sometimes that I had a whispered presentiment that was quite
inexplicable. Then when some event or other has come to pass, I have
said to myself with astonishment: 'I knew all this beforehand.'"
"The same thing happens to me," replied Nela. "Yesterday you told me
you loved me dearly, and when I got home I said to myself: 'It is very
strange, but I knew something of this.'"
"It is wonderful, dear little one, how perfectly our souls are one.
United by our own wish and will, nothing is wanting but a bond of
union. That bond shall be tied if I really gain the precious sense
that I have never enjoyed. The idea of seeing would never have taken
possession of my mind if I did not cherish above all things the idea
that through it I should love you better. The acquisition of that power
can be nothing to me but the faculty of admiring in a new kind of way
what I already admire so truly by the way of love.--But I fancy you are
sad to-day."
"Yes, I am; and to tell you the truth, I do not know why. I am very
happy and very sad, both at once. The day is so gloomy--it would be
better if it never were day at all, always night."
"Nay, nay, things are good as they are. Day and night! If God ever
grant me to know the difference, how happy I shall be! Why are you
stopping?"
"We have come to a dangerous bit. We must turn aside a little way to
get to the path."
"Ah! La Trascava! This slippery grass slopes down till it is lost in
the chasm. Whatever falls down there does not come up again. Let us go
away, Nela; I do not like this place."
"Silly boy, it is a long way from this to the mouth of the chasm. And
it is very pretty here to-day."
Nela stood still and detained her companion by the arm, looking down
at the mouth of the gulf which opened in the earth, in shape like a
funnel. The sloping sides of this narrow, deep basin were covered by
extremely fine turf; at the very bottom a large oblong rock lay on the
grass among brambles, fennel shrubs and rushes, and an immense variety
of gay-colored flowers. The stone looked like a large tongue. You felt,
rather than saw, that by the side of it there was an opening, an abyss,
hidden by plants, such as Don Quixote had to cut away when he slid into
the cavern of Montesinos.
Nela seemed never tired of looking.
"Why do you say that the horrible Trascava looks pretty?" asked Pablo.
"Because it is so full of flowers. Last week they were all dead and
over, but now they have bloomed afresh, and it really is lovely to
look at. And there are such numbers of birds there, and of butterflies
too, sucking honey from the flowers. Choto, Choto, come here--do not
frighten the poor little birds."
The dog, who had run down the slope, came galloping back at Nela's
call, and the fluttering republic of birds returned to take possession
of their common property.
"I have a perfect horror of the place," said Pablo, pulling the girl's
arm. "Now, shall we go as far as the mines? I know the way there, and
feel on my own ground; we will go round behind el Barco.--Choto, go on
in front, do not get under my feet."
They went down a path cut into steps and soon reached the basin formed
by digging out the earth and ore. Leaving the zone of vegetation,
they suddenly crossed the boundary line of a geological zone, so to
speak, an enormous trench, whose sides, wrought by the pick and shovel,
displayed an interesting section of stratification, where the different
layers showed the greatest variety of colors and earths. This was the
place where Teodoro Golfin had fancied himself in the hull of a wrecked
vessel, worn away by the waves--and its popular name _el Barco_ (the
ship), had been suggested by that very resemblance. By day, however,
the spectator was chiefly struck by the sections of the strata with
their sulphurous and carboniferous veins, black sedimentary deposits,
lignites, in which jet frequently occurred, streaks of ferruginous
earth that looked as if they had been mixed with blood, and large,
even layers of slate, split in a thousand places by human devices,
bristling with splinters and riven into fissures and clefts, looking
like wounds seen through a strong magnifier; while a thread of water,
stained with oxide of iron, that flowed down the middle, might be taken for blood.
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