Maruja

by Bret Harte

  CHAPTER IX

  The news of the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. Saltonstallwas followed by the still more astonishing discovery that the Doctor'swill further bequeathed to her his entire property, after payment ofhis debts and liabilities. It was given in recognition of her talentsand business integrity during their late association, and as anevidence of the confidence and "undying affection" of the testator.Nevertheless, after the first surprise, the fact was accepted by thecommunity as both natural and proper under that singular instinct ofhumanity which acquiesces without scruple in the union of two largefortunes, but sharply questions the conjunction of poverty andaffluence, and looks only for interested motives where there isdisparity of wealth. Had Mrs. Saltonstall been a poor widow instead ofa rich one; had she been the Doctor's housekeeper instead of hisbusiness friend, the bequest would have been strongly criticised--ifnot legally tested. But this combination, which placed the entirevalley of San Antonio in the control of a single individual, appearedto be perfectly legitimate. More than that, some vague rumor of theDoctor's past and his early entanglements only seemed to make thiseminently practical disposition of his property the more respectable,and condoned for any moral irregularities of his youth.

  The effect upon the collateral branches of the Guitierrez family andthe servants and retainers was even more impressive. For once, itseemed that the fortunes and traditions of the family were changed; thefemale Guitierrez, instead of impoverishing the property, had augmentedit; the foreigner and intruder had been despoiled; the fate of LaMision Perdida had been changed; the curse of Koorotora had proved ablessing; his prophet and descendant, Pereo, the mayordomo, moved in anatmosphere of superstitious adulation and respect among the domesticsand common people. This recognition of his power he received at timeswith a certain exaltation of grandiloquent pride beyond the conceptionof any but a Spanish servant, and at times with a certain dull, painedvacancy of perception and an expression of frightened bewildermentwhich also went far to establish his reputation as an unconscious seerand thaumaturgist. "Thou seest," said Sanchez to the partly skepticalFaquita, "he does not know more than an infant what is his power. Thatis the proof of it." The Dona Maria alone did not participate in thisappreciation of Pereo, and when it was proposed that a feast orcelebration of rejoicing should be given under the old pear-tree by theIndian's mound, her indignation was long remembered by those thatwitnessed it. "It is not enough that we have been made ridiculous inthe past," she said to Maruja, "by the interference of this solemnfool, but that the memory of our friend is to be insulted by hisgenerosity being made into a triumph of Pereo's idiotic ancestor. Onewould have thought those coyotes and Koorotora's bones had been buriedwith the cruel gossip of your relations"--(it had been the recent habitof Dona Maria to allude to "the family" as being particularly relatedto Maruja alone)--"over my poor friend. Let him beware that hisancestor's mound is not uprooted with the pear-tree, and his heathenishtemple destroyed. If, as the engineer says, a branch of the newrailroad can be established for La Mision Perdida, I agree with himthat it can better pass at that point with less sacrifice to thedomain. It is the one uncultivated part of the park, and lies at theproper angle."

  "You surely would not consent to this, my mother?" said Maruja, with asudden impression of a newly found force in her mother's character.

  "Why not, child?" said the relict of Mr. Saltonstall and the mourner ofDr. West, coldly. "I admit it was discreet of thee in old times tohave thy sentimental passages there with caballeros who, like theguests of the hidalgo that kept a skeleton at his feast, were remindedof the mutability of their hopes by Koorotora's bones and the legend.But with the explosion of this idea of a primal curse, like Eve's, onthe property," added the Dona Maria, with a slight bitterness, "thoumayest have thy citas--elsewhere. Thou canst scarcely keep thisCaptain Carroll any longer at a distance by rattling those bones ofKoorotora in his face. And of a truth, child, since the affair of theletters, and his discreet and honorable conduct since, I see not whythou shouldst. He has thy mother's reputation in his hands."

  "He is a gentleman, my mother," said Maruja, quietly.

  "And they are scarce, child, and should be rewarded and preserved. Thatis what I meant, silly one; this Captain is not rich--but then, thouhast enough for both."

  "But it was Amita that first brought him here," said Maruja, lookingdown with an air of embarrassed thoughtfulness, which Dona Maria choseto instantly accept as exaggerated coyness.

  "Do not think to deceive me or thyself, child, with this folly. Thouart old enough to know a man's mind, if not thine own. Besides, I donot know that I shall object to her liking for Raymond. He is veryclever, and would be a relief to some of thy relatives. He would beinvaluable to us in the emergencies that may grow out of thesemechanical affairs that I do not understand--such as the mill and therailroad."

  "And you propose to take a few husbands as partners in the business?"said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits. "I warn you that CaptainCarroll is as stupid as a gentleman could be. I wonder that he has notblundered in other things as badly as he has in preferring me to Amita.He confided to me only last night, that he had picked up a pocket-bookbelonging to the Doctor and given it to Aladdin, without a witness orreceipt, and evidently of his own accord."

  "A pocket-book of the Doctor's?" repeated Dona Maria.

  "Ay; but it contained nothing of thine," said Maruja. "The poor childhad sense enough to think of that. But I am in no hurry to ask yourconsent and your blessing yet, little mother. I could even bear thatAmita should precede me to the altar, if the exigencies of thy'business' require it. It might also secure Captain Carroll for me.Nay, look not at me in that cheapening, commercial way--with compoundinterest in thine eyes. I am not so poor an investment, truly, of thyoriginal capital."

  "Thou art thy father's child," said her mother, suddenly kissing her;"and that is saying enough, the Blessed Virgin knows. Go now," shecontinued, gently pushing her from the room, "and send Amita hither."She watched the disappearance of Maruja's slightly rebelliousshoulders, and added to herself, "And this is the child that Amitareally believes is pining with lovesickness for Carroll, so that shecan neither sleep nor eat. This is the girl that Faquita would have methink hath no longer any heart in her dress or in her finery! Soul ofJoseph Saltonstall!" ejaculated the widow, lifting her shoulders andher eyes together, "thou hast much to account for."

  Two weeks later she again astonished her daughter. "Why dost thou notjoin the party that drives over to see the wonders of Aladdin's Palaceto-day? It would seem more proper that thou shouldst accompany thyguests than Raymond and Amita."

  "I have never entered his doors since the day he was disrespectful tomy mother's daughter," said Maruja, in surprise.

  "Disrespectful!" repeated Dona Maria, impatiently. "Thy father'sdaughter ought to know that such as he may be ignorant and vulgar, butcan not be disrespectful to her. And there are offenses, child, it ismuch more crushing to forget than to remember. As long as he has notthe presumption to APOLOGIZE, I see no reason why thou mayst not go.He has not been here since that affair of the letters. I shall notpermit him to be uncivil over THAT--dost thou understand? He is of useto me in business. Thou mayst take Carroll with thee; he willunderstand that."

  "But Carroll will not go," said Maruja. "He will not say what passedbetween them, but I suspect they quarreled."

  "All the better, then, that thou goest alone. He need not be remindedof it. Fear not but that he will be only too proud of thy visit tothink of aught else."

  Maruja, who seemed relieved at this prospect of being unaccompanied byCaptain Carroll, shrugged her shoulders and assented.

  When the party that afternoon drove into the courtyard of Aladdin'sPalace, the announcement that its hospitable proprietor was absent, andwould not return until dinner, did not abate either their pleasure ortheir curiosity. As already intimated to the reader, Mr. Prince'sfunctions as host were characteristically irregular; and the
servant'ssuggestion, that Mr. Prince's private secretary would attend to do thehonors, created little interest, and was laughingly waived by Maruja."There really is not the slightest necessity to trouble the gentleman,"she said, politely. "I know the house thoroughly, and I think I haveshown it once or twice before for your master. Indeed," she added,turning to her party, "I have been already complimented on my skill asa cicerone." After a pause, she continued, with a slight exaggerationof action and in her deepest contralto, "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen,the ball and court in which we are now standing is a perfect copy ofthe Court of Lions at the Alhambra, and was finished in fourteen daysin white pine, gold, and plaster, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. Aphotograph of the original structure hangs on the wall: you willobserve, ladies and gentlemen, that the reproduction is perfect. TheAlhambra is in Granada, a province of Spain, which it is said in somerespects to resemble California, where you have probably observed theSpanish language is still spoken by the old settlers. We now cross thestable-yard on a bridge which is a facsimile in appearance anddimensions of the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, connecting the Doge'sPalace with the State Prison. Here, on the contrary, instead of beingushered into a dreary dungeon, as in the great original, a freshsurprise awaits us. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to precede you forthe surprise. We open a door thus--and--presto!"--

  She stopped, speechless, on the threshold; the fan fell from hergesticulating hand.

  In the centre of a brilliantly-lit conservatory, with golden columns, ayoung man was standing. As her fan dropped on the tessellatedpavement, he came forward, picked it up, and put it in her rigid andmechanical fingers. The party, who had applauded her apparentlyartistic climax, laughingly pushed by her into the conservatory,without noticing her agitation.

  It was the same face and figure she remembered as last standing beforeher, holding back the crowding grain in the San Antonio field. Buthere he was appareled and appointed like a gentleman, and even seemedto be superior to the garish glitter of his new surroundings.

  "I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss Saltonstall," hesaid, with the faintest suggestion of his former manner in hishalf-resentful sidelong glance. "I hear that you offered to dispensewith my services, but I knew that Mr. Prince would scarcely besatisfied if I did not urge it once more upon you in person. I am hisprivate secretary."

  At the same moment, Amita and Raymond, attracted by the conversation,turned towards him. Their recognition of the man they had seen at Dr.West's was equally distinct. The silence became embarrassing. Twopretty girls of the party pressed to Amita's side, with half-audiblewhispers. "What is it?" "Who's your handsome and wicked-lookingfriend?" "Is this the surprise?"

  At the sound of their voices, Maruja recovered herself coldly."Ladies," she said, with a slight wave of her fan, "this is Mr.Prince's private secretary. I believe it is hardly fair to take up hisvaluable time. Allow me to thank you, sir, FOR PICKING UP MY FAN."

  With a single subtle flash of the eye she swept by him, taking hercompanions to the other end of the conservatory. When she turned, hewas gone.

  "This was certainly an unexpected climax," said Raymond, mischievously."Did you really arrange it beforehand? We leave a picturesque tramp atthe edge of a grave; we pass over six weeks and a Bridge of Sighs, andhey, presto! we find a private secretary in a conservatory! This isquite the regular Aladdin business."

  "You may laugh," said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits, "but ifyou were really clever you'd find out what it all means. Don't you seethat Amita is dying of curiosity?"

  "Let us fly at once and discover the secret, then," said Raymond,slipping Amita's arm through his. "We will consult the oracle in thestables. Come."

  The others followed, leaving Maruja for an instant alone. She wasabout to rejoin them when she heard footsteps in the passage they hadjust crossed, and then perceived that the young stranger had merelywithdrawn to allow the party to precede him before he returned to theother building through the conservatory, which he was just entering.In turning quickly to escape, the black lace of her over-skirt caughtin the spines of a snaky-looking cactus. She stopped to disengageherself with feverish haste in vain. She was about to sacrifice thedelicate material, in her impatience, when the young man steppedquietly to her side.

  "Allow me. Perhaps I have more patience, even if I have less time," hesaid, stooping down. Their ungloved hands touched. Maruja stopped inher efforts and stood up. He continued until he had freed the lucklessflounce, conscious of the soft fire of her eyes on his head and neck.

  "There," he said, rising, and encountering her glance. As she did notspeak, he continued: "You are thinking, Miss Saltonstall, that you haveseen me before, are you not? Well--you HAVE; I asked you the road toSan Jose one morning when I was tramping by your hedge."

  "And as you probably were looking for something better--which you seemto have found--you didn't care to listen to MY directions," saidMaruja, quickly.

  "I found a man--almost the only one who ever offered me a gratuitouskindness--at whose grave I afterwards met you. I found another man whobefriended me here--where I meet you again."

  She was beginning to be hysterically nervous lest any one should returnand find them together. She was conscious of a tingling of vagueshame. Yet she lingered. The strange fascination of his half-savagemelancholy, and a reproachfulness that seemed to arraign her, with therest of the world, at the bar of his vague resentment, held thedelicate fibres of her sensitive being as cruelly and relentlessly asthe thorns of the cactus had gripped her silken lace. Without knowingwhat she was saying, she stammered that she "was glad he connected herwith his better fortune," and began to move away. He noticed it withhis sidelong lids, and added, with a slight bitterness:--

  "I don't think I should have intruded here again, but I thought you hadgone. But I--I--am afraid you have not seen the last of me. It was theintention of my employer, Mr. Prince, to introduce me to you and yourmother. I suppose he considers it part of my duties here. I must warnyou that, if you are here when he returns, he will insist upon it, andupon your meeting me with these ladies at dinner."

  "Perhaps so--he is my mother's friend," said Maruja; "but you have theadvantage of us--you can always take to the road, you know."

  The smile with which she had intended to accompany this speech did notcome as readily in execution as it had in conception, and she wouldhave given worlds to have recalled her words. But he said, "That'sso," quietly, and turned away, as if to give her an opportunity toescape. She moved hesitatingly towards the passage and stopped. Thesound of the returning voices gave her a sudden courage.

  "Mr.--"

  "Guest," said the young man.

  "If we do conclude to stay to dinner as Mr. Prince has said nothing ofintroducing you to my sister, you must let ME have that pleasure."

  He lifted his eyes to hers with a sudden flush. But she had fled.

  She reached her party, displaying her torn flounce as the cause of herdelay, and there was a slight quickness in her breathing and her speechwhich was attributed to the same grave reason. "But, only listen,"said Amita, "we've got it all out of the butler and the grooms. It'ssuch a romantic story!"

  "What is?" said Maruja, suddenly.

  "Why, the private tramp's."

  "The peripatetic secretary," suggested Raymond.

  "Yes," continued Amita, "Mr. Prince was so struck with his gratitude tothe old Doctor that he hunted him up in San Jose, and brought him here.Since then Prince has been so interested in him--it appears he wassomebody in the States, or has rich relations--that he has beentelegraphing and making all sorts of inquiries about him, and has evensent out his own lawyer to hunt up everything about him. Are youlistening?"

  "Yes."

  "You seem abstracted."

  "I am hungry."

  "Why not dine here; it's an hour earlier than at home. Aladdin wouldfall at your feet for the honor. Do!"

  Maruja looked at them with innocent vagueness, as if
the possibilitywere just beginning to dawn upon her.

  "And Clara Wilson is just dying to see the mysterious unknown again.Say yes, little Maruja."

  Little Maruja glanced at them with a large maternal compassion. "Weshall see."

  Mr. Prince, on his return an hour later, was unexpectedly delightedwith Maruja's gracious acceptance of his invitation to dinner. He wasthoroughly sensible of the significance which his neighbors hadattached to the avoidance by the Saltonstall heiress of his variousparties and gorgeous festivities ever since a certain act ofindiscretion--now alleged to have been produced by the exaltation ofwine--had placed him under ban. Whatever his feelings were towards hermother, he could not fail to appreciate fully this act of the daughter,which rehabilitated him. It was with more than his usualextravagance--shown even in a certain exaggeration of respect towardsMaruja--that he welcomed the party, and made preparations for thedinner. The telegraph and mounted messengers were put into rapidrequisition. The bridal suite was placed at the disposal of the youngladies for a dressing-room. The attendant genii surpassed themselves.The evening dresses of Maruja, Amita, and the Misses Wilson, summonedby electricity from La Mision Perdida, and dispatched by the fleetestconveyances, were placed in the arms of their maids, smothered withbouquets, an hour before dinner. An operatic concert troupe, passingthrough the nearest town, were diverted from their course by the slavesof the ring to discourse hidden music in the music-room during dinner."Bite my finger, Sweetlips," said Miss Clara Wilson, who had a neattaste for apt quotation, to Maruja, "that I may see if I am awake. It'sthe Arabian Nights all over again!"

  The dinner was a marvel, even in a land of gastronomic marvels; thedessert a miracle of fruits, even in a climate that bore the productsof two zones. Maruja, from her seat beside her satisfied host, lookedacross a bank of yellow roses at her sister and Raymond, and wastimidly conscious of the eyes of young Guest, who was seated at theother end of the table, between the two Misses Wilson. With a strangehaunting of his appearance on the day she first met him, she stoleglances of half-frightened curiosity at him while he was eating, andwas relieved to find that he used his knife and fork like the others,and that his appetite was far from voracious. It was his employer whowas the first to recall the experiences of his past life, with acertain enthusiasm and the air of a host anxious to contribute to theentertainment of his guests. "You'd hardly believe, Miss Saltonstall,that that young gentleman over there walked across the Continent--andtwo thousand odd miles, wasn't it?--all alone, and with not much morein the way of traps than he's got on now. Tell 'em, Harry, how theApaches nearly gobbled you up, and then let you go because they thoughtyou as good an Injun as any one of them, and how you lived a week inthe desert on two biscuits as big as that." A chorus of entreaty anddelighted anticipation followed the suggestion. The old expression ofbeing at bay returned for an instant to Guest's face, but, lifting hiseyes, he caught a look of almost sympathetic anxiety from Maruja's, whohad not spoken.

  "It became necessary for me, some time ago," said Guest, halfexplanatorily, to Maruja, "to be rather explicit in the details of myjourney here, and I told Mr. Prince some things which he seems to thinkinteresting to others. That is all. To save my life on one occasion,I was obliged to show myself as good as an Indian, in his own way, andI lived among them and traveled with them for two weeks. I have beenhungry, as I suppose others have on like occasions, but nothing more."

  Nevertheless, in spite of his evident reticence, he was obliged to giveway to their entreaties, and, with a certain grim and uncompromisingtruthfulness of statement, recounted some episodes of his journey. Itwas none the less thrilling that he did it reluctantly, and in much thesame manner as he had answered his father's questions, and as he hadprobably responded to the later cross-examination of Mr. Prince. Hedid not tell it emotionally, but rather with the dogged air of one whohad been subjected to a personal grievance for which he neither askednor expected sympathy. When he did not raise his eyes to Maruja's, hekept them fixed on his plate.

  "Well," said Prince, when a long-drawn sigh of suspended emotion amongthe guests testified to his powers as a caterer to their amusement,"what do you say to some music with our coffee to follow the story?"

  "It's more like a play," said Amita to Raymond. "What a pity CaptainCarroll, who knows all about Indians, isn't here to have enjoyed it.But I suppose Maruja, who hasn't lost a word, will tell it to him."

  "I don't think she will," said Raymond, dryly, glancing at Maruja, who,lost in some intricate pattern of her Chinese plate, was apparentlyunconscious that her host was waiting her signal to withdraw.

  At last she raised her head, and said, gently but audibly, to thewaiting Prince,--

  "It is positively a newer pattern; the old one had not that delicatestraw line in the arabesque. You must have had it made for you."

  "I did," said the gratified Prince, taking up the plate. "What eyesyou have, Miss Saltonstall. They see everything."

  "Except that I'm keeping you all waiting," she returned, with a smile,letting the eyes in question fall with a half-parting salutation onGuest as she rose. It was the first exchange of a common instinctbetween them, and left them as conscious as if they had pressed hands.

  The music gave an opportunity for some desultory conversation, in whichMr. Prince and his young friend received an invitation from Maruja tovisit La Mision, and the party, by common consent, turned into theconservatory, where the genial host begged them each to select a flowerfrom a few especially rare exotics. When Maruja received hers, shesaid, laughingly, to Prince, "Will you think me very importunate if Iask for another?" "Take what you like--you have only to name it," hereplied, gallantly. "But that's just what I can't do," responded theyoung girl, "unless," she added, turning to Guest, "unless you canassist me. It was the plant I was examining to-day." "I think I canshow it to you," said Guest, with a slight increase of color, as hepreceded her towards the memorable cactus near the door, "but I doubtif it has any flower."

  Nevertheless, it had. A bright red blossom, like a spot of blood drawnby one of its thorns. He plucked it for her, and she placed it in herbelt.

  "You are forgiving," he said, admiringly.

  "YOU ought to know that," she returned, looking down.

  "I?--why?"

  "You were rude to me twice."

  "Twice!"

  "Yes--once at the Mision of La Perdida; once in the road at SanAntonio."

  His eyes became downcast and gloomy. "At the Mision that morning, I, awretched outcast, only saw in you a beautiful girl intent on overridingme with her merciless beauty. At San Antonio I handed the fan I pickedup to the man whose eyes told me he loved you."

  She started impatiently. "You might have been more gallant, and foundmore difficulty in the selection," she said, pertly. "But since whenhave you gentlemen become so observant and so punctilious? Would youexpect him to be as considerate of others?"

  "I have few claims that any one seems bound to respect," he returned,brusquely. Then, in a softer voice, he added, looking at her, gently,--

  "You were in mourning when you came here this afternoon, MissSaltonstall."

  "Was I? It was for Dr. West--my mother's friend."

  "It was very becoming to you."

  "You are complimenting me. But I warn you that Captain Carroll saidsomething better than that; he said mourning was not necessary for me.I had only to 'put my eye-lashes at half-mast.' He is a soldier youknow."

  "He seems to be as witty as he is fortunate," said Guest, bitterly.

  "Do you think he is fortunate?" said Maruja, raising her eyes to his.There was so much in this apparently simple question that Guest lookedin her eyes for a suggestion. What he saw there for an instant madehis heart stop beating. She apparently did not know it, for she beganto tremble too.

  "Is he not?" said Guest, in a low voice.

  "Do you think he ought to be?" she found herself whispering.

  A sudden silence fell upon them. The voices of
their companions seemedvery far in the distance; the warm breath of the flowers appeared to bedrowning their senses; they tried to speak, but could not; they were sonear to each other that the two long blades of a palm served to hidethem. In the midst of this profound silence a voice that was like andyet unlike Maruja's said twice, "Go! go!" but each time seemed hushedin the stifling silence. The next moment the palms were pushed aside,the dark figure of a young man slipped like some lithe animal throughthe shrubbery, and Maruja found herself standing, pale and rigid, inthe middle of the walk, in the full glare of the light, and lookingdown the corridor toward her approaching companions. She was furiousand frightened; she was triumphant and trembling; without thought,sense, or reason, she had been kissed by Henry Guest, and--had returnedit.

  The fleetest horses of Aladdin's stud that night could not carry herfar enough or fast enough to take her away from that moment, thatscene, and that sensation. Wise and experienced, confident in herbeauty, secure in her selfishness, strong over others' weaknesses,weighing accurately the deeds and words of men and women, recognizingall there was in position and tradition, seeing with her father's cleareyes the practical meaning of any divergence from that conventionalitywhich as a woman of the world she valued, she returned again and againto the trembling joy of that intoxicating moment. She though of hermother and sisters, of Raymond and Garnier, of Aladdin--she even forcedherself to think of Carroll--only to shut her eyes, with a faint smile,and dream again the brief but thrilling dream of Guest that began andended in their joined and parted lips. Small wonder that, hidden andsilent in her enwrappings, as she lay back in the carriage, with herpale face against the cold starry sky, two other stars came out andglistened and trembled on her passion-fringed lashes.