And slowly she went through the great iron gates
into the passage-way. They played with love andintimacy as a cat with a mouse. It is
time Cipriano should come home, said Teresa. It occurred to her, that she
herselfwilled this aloneness. She could never be sure, never be WHOLE in
herconnection with Cipriano and Ramón. It was as if she had conquered another
territory,another field of life. Itmight have mattered more, if she had not had it.
The ass-foal straight found theudder, and was drinking. After all, when Cipriano
touched her caressively, all her bodyflowered.
He says it is accepting the greater responsibility
of onesexistence. It is very good, she replied, with the infallible echo. Everything
was motionless, save the movinganimals. Let us sit down, said Ramón, still in
Spanish.
Two men were pulling therope, pressing in the
flanks of the immoveable, passive, spangledmonster.
A creeping plant, with greatsnake-like cords, and
big sulphur-and-brown trumpet flowers, hungabove. Kate was a wise woman, wise enough
to take a lesson.
It may be, he said, rising and going quietly away;
so quietly, hewas gone before she knew. It may be, he said, rising and going quietly
away; so quietly, hewas gone before she knew. Where had she heard something about
jasmine? And even amid her tears, Kate was thinking to herself: What afraud I am!
Usually, they are grimalkins to fill one with pity or withrepulsion.
Butafter a while, the wonder faded, and a sort of
jealous emptinessset in. She could not relax and be with thesepeople. It was near,
yet seemed strange and remote. Different men must have different wives, she said.
But the Star is the same for both of us, Winsome.
When Kate watched him, he glanced up witha flash of
black eyes, saluting her. Ramón would always be too abstract and overbearing for me.
My way is not thy way, and thine is not mine. A roan horse speckled with white was
racing prancing along theshore, neighing frantically.
He looked so young, when he smiled that gay, shy,
excited littlesmile.
Teresa flushed slowly, looking down at the
ground.
Then they began to shovethe cow towards it. There
it straddled on high, in amaze, upon its blacklegs like bent hair-pins. I must not
recoilagainst Cipriano and Ramón, they make my blood blossom in my
body.
There seemed to be nothing left of himbut the
black, ghostly eyes that gazed on her.
In the distance, it looked very
attractive.
He wanted her toacquiesce in the hymn, in the drum,
in the whole mood.