Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-06
THE SAVANNAH MORNING NEWs SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1884,

direction OF Los Cuervos, and then turned
MS head toward the e1lbdrcdder0.
As the afternoon wore on. q ereaking.
Anticipated ox-cart arrived at Los Cueryos,
bearing several articles of furniture, and
some tasteful ornaments from Los Gatos,
at the same time that a young Mexican
girl mysteriously appeared in the kitchen,
as temporary assistant of the decrepit
Coneha. These were both clearly attribu-
table 70 Don Jose, whose visit was not SO
remote but that these delicate atten-
lions might have been already projected
before Mrs. Tucker had declined them,
and she could not, without marked dis
courtesy, reject them now. She did not
wish to seem discourteOus; she would
like TO have been more civil to this old
gentleman, who still retained the evil
dences of picturesque and decorous past,
and repose so different from the life
that was perpleXing her. Rejecting that
II be bought the estate these things would
be ready to his hand. and with a woman's
instinct recognizing their value in setting
of the house to other purchasers eyes.
she took pleasure in tastefully arrang-
ing them, and even found herself specu-
lating how she might have enjoyed them
herself had she been able to keep posses
sion Of the property. After all, it would
not have been so lonely if refined and
gentle neighbors, like this old man,
would have sympathized with her; she
had an instructive feeling that, in their
own hopeless decay and hereditary unfit
ness for this new civilization, they would
have been more tolerant of her husbands
failure than his own kind. She could not
believe that Don Jose really hated her
husband for buying of the successful
claimant, as there was no other legal
title. Allowing herself to become inter-
ested in the guileless gossip OF the new
hand. maiden-proud Of her broken Eng
lish-she was drawn into a sympathy with
the grave simplicity OF Don Jose's charae-
ter-a relic Of that true nobility which
placed the descendant Of the Castilians
and this daughter Of free people ON the
same level.
In this way the second day of her occu-
pancy Of Los CuerYos closed, with dumb
clouds along the gray horizon, and the
paroXysms OF hysterical wind growing
fainter and fainter outside the walls; with
the moon rising after nightfall, and losing
itself in silent aud mysterious confidence
with drifting scud. She went TO bed early,
but awOke past midnight, hearing, as she
thought, her own name called. The i'm
preston was so strong upon her that she
roses and, hastily enwrapping herself,
went TO the dark embresures of the oven
shaped windows and looked out. The
dwarfed oak beside the window was still
dropping from a past shower, but the
level waste of marsh and meadow be-
yond seemed to advance and recede with
the coming and going of the moon. Again
she heard her name called, and this time
in accents so strangely familiar that with
a slight cry she ran into the corridor,
crossed the patio, and reached the open
gate. The darkness that had, even in this
brief interval, again fallen upon the pros
pect she tried in vain to pierce with eve
and voice. A blank silence followed.
Then the veil was suddenly withdrawn:
the vast plain, stretching from the noun
tain 70 the sea, shOne as clearly as in the
light of day; the moving current of the
channel glittered like black pearls, the
stagnant pools like molten lead; but not
a sign of life nor motion broke the
monotony of the broad expanse. She must
have surely dreamed it. A chill wind
drove her back 10 the house again; she en- /
tered her bedroom, and in bali an hour she
was in a peaceful sleep.