Marianela 13
Teodoro, who was the eldest, was a medical man before Cárlos was
qualified as an engineer, and he helped him to the utmost so long as
the younger brother needed it, and when he saw him fairly started, he
took the step to which his enterprising spirit had long aspired, and
set out for South America. There he practised with other celebrated
physicians, gaining fame and wealth. After a short visit at home, in
Spain, he returned to the New World, and even after a second voyage
home he went back again; but during each of these expeditions he
made a short tour in Europe to avail himself of the advances made in
ophthalmic science which he particularly cultivated.
He was a man of unpolished manners, dark and with an __EXPRESSION__ at
once intelligent and sensual; his lips were thick, his skin opaque
and hairy, his eyes bright and keen; his frame was robust and his
constitution sound, though somewhat injured by the South American
climate. His large, round face, his prominent brow, his short,
rebellious hair, the flash of his eyes and his thick, square hands, had
led to his being spoken of as "the black lion." In truth, he was like
a lion, and like the king of beasts, he never lost an opportunity of
asserting the estimation in which he held himself. However, this vanity
of a really distinguished man was the most pardonable of vanities,
for it consisted chiefly in his persistently displaying his two great
titles of fame and honor, namely: his devotion to surgery and the
lowness of his origin. He spoke incorrectly, from his utter inability
to elaborate phrases with ease and elegance. His rapid and broken
sentences followed the course of his ideas, which were as swift as the
electric spark.
"We," Teodoro would say, "although we have sprung from the grass by
the way-side, which is the lowest origin conceivable, have grown into
stalwart trees. Long live labor and human enterprise! I cannot but
think that we Golfins, though Heaven knows where we came from, must
have some English blood in our veins. Even our name seems to me to be
of purely Saxon origin. I give it this etymology, _Gold-find_, or, as
you may say, Gold-finders. Well, and my brother finds it in the bowels
of the earth, while I find it in that marvellous miniature universe:
the human eye."
At the period of our story he had just arrived via New York and
Liverpool, and, as he declared, he now meant to remain at home; but no
one believed it, for he had said so many times before and had not kept
his word.
His brother Cárlos was a gentler being, placid, studious, a slave to
his duties, and devoted to mineralogy and metallurgy to the point of
caring far more for these two branches of learning than for his wife's
society. But the couple lived, nevertheless, in perfect harmony; or,
as Teodoro said, in an isomorphous state, crystallizing on the same
system. As for himself, when matrimony was spoken of, he would say:
"To me, marriage would be an epigenesis, a pseudo-morphous
crystallization, that is to say, a mode of crystallization which would
not harmonize with my nature."
Sofía was a very good woman, who had been very handsome, but whose
beauty was daily losing character and __EXPRESSION__ from her unfortunate
tendency to stoutness. She had been told that an atmosphere charged
with coal smoke had a tendency to reduce fat, and for this reason she
had come to live at the mines, without ever leaving them the whole
year through. The horrible air, charged with dust, calamine and smoke,
annoyed her much however. She had no child alive, and her principal
occupation consisted in playing the piano and in organizing societies
of benevolent ladies for giving the poor help in their homes, and for
maintaining hospitals and schools.
At Madrid, for many years her energy had been prodigious, a real model
for all who feel prompted to acts of charity. With the help of two or
three ladies of rank, equally devoted to their humble and suffering
neighbors, she had organized more than twenty dramatic performances,
and as many fancy balls, six bull-fights and two cock-fights, all for
the benefit of the poor.
Among her other manias, which were apt to be but transient, however,
was one which perhaps is less commendable than that for helping the
needy, and which consisted in surrounding herself with dogs and cats,
devoting herself to these animals with an affection really worthy to be
called love. Lately, since she had lived at Socartes, she had kept a
toy-terrier which had been brought to her as a commission from England
by Ulises Buli, the head of the machinery department. This was a
delicate and slender creature, as tricky and amusing as a child. It was
called Líli, and had cost a small fortune in London--as dogs go.
On fine days the trio walked out together; when it was wet they played
and sang, for Sofía had a modest pipe which, at Socartes, passed
for singing. The deputy engineer had a deep bass voice, and Teodoro
likewise was _basso profondo_. Cárlos could sing but a little higher,
so that the whole effect was somewhat like a priestly choir, in which
Sofía's treble came out as if she were a priestess being carried off
to be immolated. All the pieces they sang were--or at any rate sounded
like--priests offering a sacrifice, and a priestess being sacrificed.
On the days when they walked far they took with them a sort of picnic
afternoon meal. One evening--it was at the end of September, and six
days after the doctor's arrival at the mines--the party were returning
homewards in the following order: Líli, Sofía, Teodoro, Cárlos. The
path was too narrow to allow of their walking two and two. Líli wore a
little sky-blue coat or gaberdine with his mistress's initials worked
upon it; Sofía carried her parasol like a gun over her shoulder, and
Teodoro had his stick in precisely the same position with his hat
hanging on the end of it; it was one of his favorite whims to walk out
bare-headed. They were passing above La Trascava when Líli, leaving the
path, with his elastic little legs like springs, began to run on the
turf that covered the slope to the chasm. First he ran, but then he
slipped on the grass. Sofía gave a cry of terror. Her first impulse,
prompted by an almost maternal feeling, was to run after the little
beast that was in no real danger; but her husband stopped her, saying:
"The devil may have Líli if he wants him--but he will come back. It is
impossible to go down, the turf here is so slippery."
"Líli, Líli," cried Sofía, hoping that her touching appeal would arrest
the creature on the road to perdition, and bring him back to the path
of virtue and duty. But the tenderest adjurations had no effect on the
rebellious soul of Líli, who went lower and lower. From time to time he
looked up at his mistress with his bright, black eyes, which seemed to
say: "For mercy's sake do not be so foolish."
At the large, moss-grown, white rock, which lay like a lid at the
very mouth of the chasm, Líli stopped. All stood with their eyes
fixed on the spot, and they at once perceived something moving there.
They supposed it to be some beast of prey hiding behind the rock; but
Sofía gave another shriek of astonishment rather than of terror, and
exclaimed:
"It is Nela.--Nela what are you doing there?"
On hearing her name called, the girl appeared greatly disturbed, and
colored deeply.
"What are you doing there, mad child?" repeated the lady. "Take up Líli
and bring him back to me. Heaven have mercy on us! but what next will
that creature be doing? Just look at the place she has put herself in!
It is all your fault that Líli went down there--what an example to set
the poor little animal. It is all your fault that he behaved in this
naughty, wilful way."
"That child is a perfect limb of mischief," said Don Cárlos to his
brother. "Only look at the place she has got to."
While, on the top of the slope, they were thus discussing her, Nela,
down at the bottom, was trying to catch Líli, who, more wilful and
daring than he had ever been before in the whole course of his
monotonous existence, constantly eluded her grasp. His mistress shouted
to him in vain to "be good and behave himself," while he, ignoring
the most elementary principles of duty, went on leaping and frisking,
looking up at her, from time to time, with consummate impudence, as
though to say: "My good lady, just go on with your walk and leave me in
peace."
At last, however, the sportive little beast got entangled among the
briars which grew in the hollow, and there his little great-coat got
him into dire trouble; the poor dog, finding it impossible to escape
from the brushwood, began to bark lamentably for help.
"He will be lost, he will be killed!" wailed the Señora. "Nela, Nela,
if you will only save him, I will give you a fine, big dog. Save
him--go carefully--hold fast."
Nela went boldly to the rescue; setting her foot on the brambles and
stout-stemmed creepers that grew over the rift, and holding on by one
hand to the rock, she put out the other to take hold of Líli's tail,
by which she pulled him out of the tangle in which he had been caught.
Then, patting and coaxing him, she mounted in triumph to the top of the
slope.
"It is your fault, all your fault," said Sofía crossly, and boxing
the dog's ears very gently. "What on earth made you go down into that
hole--you know he goes after you wherever he finds you--hussy that you
are!"
And then she kissed her recovered treasure and gave him one or two mild
slaps, and after having assured herself that his precious skin was
whole, she pulled his little coat straight, which had got dragged over
his head, and gave him to Nela, saying:
"Take him, and carry him in your arms, for he must be tired, and
such a long scamper may do him harm. But take care of him--go on in
front.--Take great care of him--you see I am close behind to keep an
eye on you."
The family party set out again, with Nela leading the way. Líli looked
at his mistress over Nela's shoulder, and seemed to say: "My good
mistress, what a simpleton you are!"
Teodoro Golfin had said not a word during the whole of Líli's agitating
escapade, but when they had started on their way once more and were
crossing the fields, where the three could walk abreast without inconvenience, the doctor said to his brother's wife:
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