Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-06
CHAPTER V.

The two men kept their secret. Mr..
Poindexter convinced Mrs. Tucker that
the sale of Los CuervOs could not be eff
feeted until the notoriety of her husbands
flight had been fairly forgotten, and she
was forced to accept her fate. The sale
of her diamonds, which seemed to her to
have realized a singularly extraYagant
sum, enabled her to quietly reinstate the
Pattersons in the tlendd, and to discharge
in full her husbands liabilities to the
rdncheFOS and his humble retainers.
Meanwhile the winter rains had ceased.
1t seemed to her as if the clouds had sud
denly one night struck their white tents
and stolen away, leaving the unYanished
sun to mount the vacant sky the next
morning alone, and possess it thencefor-
ward unchallened. One afternoon she
thought the long sad waste before her
window had caught some tint Of gayer
color from the sunset; week later she
found it a blazing landscape of peoples,
broken here and there by blue lagoons Of
Iupine, by pools of daisies, by banks of
dog roses, by broad outlying shores of
dandeliOns that scattered their lavish gold
to the foot of the hills, where the green
pillows of wild oats carried 1t on upward
to the darker crest of pines. For two
months she was dazzled and bewildered
with color. She had never before been face
to face with this spendthrift California
Flora, in her virgin WaStefulness-her
more than gOddess-like prodigality. The
teeming earth seemed to quicken and
throb beneath her feet; the few circuits Of
a plow around the outlying corral were
enough to call out a jungle growth Of gil
ant grain that almost hid the low walls of
the Hacienda. In this glorious fecundity
OF the earth, in this joyous renewal of
lie and color, in this Opulent youth and
freshness of soil and sky it alone re-
mained-the dead and sterile Past-left in
the midst Of buOyant reiuvenescence and
resurrection, like an empty churchyard
skull upturned on the springing turf. Its
brouzed adobe walls Knocked the green
vine that embraced them, the erumbhng
dust of its court yard remained unger-
minating and unfruitful; to the thousand
stirring voices without its dry lips alone
remained mute, unresponsiYe and I'M
changed.
DuTing this time Don Jose had become
a frequent visitor at Los Cueryos, bring
ing with him at first his niece and sister
in a stately precision of politeness that
was not lost on the proud Blue Grass
stranger, She returned their visit at Los
1atoS, and there made the formal aequaint-
ance of Don JOse's grandmOther-a lady
who still regarded the decrepit Concha as
A giddy muchdchd. and who herself glitter
ed as with the phosphOrescence of refined
decay. Through this circumstance she
learned that Don Jose was not yet fifty,
and that his gravity of manner and
sedatenss was more the result of fastidi-
Gus isolation and temperament than years.
She could not tell why the information
gave her a feeling of annoyance, but it
caused her to regret the absence Of Poin-
dexter. and to wonder, also somewhat
neryousIy. why he had lately avoided her
presence. The thought that he might be do
ing so from a recollection of the innuen-
does of Mrs. Patterson caused a little
treTnor of indignation IN her pulses. LAS
if but she did not finish the sentence
even to herself, and her eyes filed with
bitter tears.
had so cruelty wrOnged her less feverish-
Iv. less impatiently than before. For she
thought she loved him now the more deeply,
because. although she was not reconciled
to his absence, it seemed to keep alive the
memory of what he had been before his
one wild act separated them. She had
never seen the reflection of another wO-
mans eyes in his; the past contained no
haunting recollection OF waning or alien
ated affection; she could meet him
again, and. claSping her arms around him,
awaken as If from a troubled dream
without repr0aeh or explanation. Her
strong belief in this made her patient;
she no longer sought to know the particu-
lars of his flight. and never dreamed that
her passive submission TO his absence
was partly due TO fear that something
in his actual presence at that moment
would have destroyed that belief forever.
For this reason the delicate retieence OF
! the people at Los GatOs. and their Seclu-
sion from the world which knew Of her
husbands fault, had made her encourage
the visits Of Don jose. until from the in
stinct already alluded to she one day sum-
mOned POindeXter to Los CuervoS, on the
day that Don Jose usually called. But 70
/ her surprise the two men met more or less
awkwardly and coldly, and her tact as
hostess was tried 10 the utmost TO keep
their evident antagonism from being too
apparent. The efort TO reconcile their
mutual discomfort, and some other feel-
inEs she did not quite understand, pro-
duced a nervous excitement which called
the blood 70 her fair cheek and gave dan
gerous hrillancy 10 her eyes-twO circum-
stances not unnoticed nor unappreciated
by her two guests. But instead Of reunit-
ing them, the prettier Mrs. Tucker be-
came, the more distant and reserved grew
the men. until Don Jose rose before his
usual hour, and with more than usual
ceremoniouSness departed.
ssThen nv business does not seem 70 be
with himgs said poindexter, with quiet
c0olneSS. as Mrs. Tucker turned her some
what mystifled fase toward him. '>Or have
you anything 70 say TO me about him in
priyatet1
u am sure 1 don't know what you both
mean she returned with slight tremor
Of voice. "a had no idea you were not
on good terms. l thought Won We're. It's
very awkward" Without coQuetry and
unconsciously she raised her blue eyes
under her lids until the clear pupils coyly
/ and soflly hid themselves in the corners
Of the brown lashes. and added: y on
have both been so kind TO ne"