Fernanda had gone off some time before with Garnet. They repaired to the garden. There the young lady took his arm and went several times up and down the same path, where she had seen the count and Amalia.

"You are very much in love with me. Is it not so?" she asked, suddenly.

The Indian surprised, murmured: "Oh! yes; they say that I am an a.s.s, and it is true."

"And what do you feel. Come let us see. What do you feel? Explain yourself."

"I, what?" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, what do you feel when you see me? What do you feel when another man comes near me? Take the count for instance. What do you feel at this instant with my arm in yours? Describe me your sensations; what pa.s.ses in your mind."

"I, senorita.... I don't know how to describe it.....Your word is my law as much as if I were one of your family ... and it is the same with Don Juan your father, although he may be a bit cantankerous.... What does it signify to me if he be cantankerous or not? If I married you, I have a house thank G.o.d.... Yes, and it is not because I say it, but my house is worth more than his, as you know. But we would travel first, in France, Italy, England, whereever you like.... And if it cost us five thousand dollars, what would that matter?"

Garnet held forth for some time in this strain, and Fernanda turned a deaf ear to him. At last the boasting tone bored her, and she said, with a touch of anger:

"Will you be quiet, sir?"

Poor Don Santos was quite crushed, and they went on in silence for some time.

"How ugly all this is!"

"What?"

"Everything! The house, the wood, the meadows, the garden. See how hideous this magnolia is!"

"The house is very ugly, and very old; I have often said so. Still, they might give it a coat of whitewash and paint the balconies. The wood is worth nothing, it is no use, and it takes up s.p.a.ce that would be valuable for garden produce, or wall fruit or such like."

Fernanda burst out laughing.

"Don't you suffer sometimes from sadness, Don Santos?"

"Sadness? never. I am always cheerful. Only once when I was robbed of eight thousand dollars by a knave I had an angry fit which lasted for two days."

"How ugly the sun is, now seen through the branches of the trees!"

"Would you like to return to the house?"

"No, take me to the river. I have a burning face, and I should like to refresh it with a little water."

They went down by the meadows to the river, and there the heiress of Estrada-Rosa, in spite of Don Santos' advice, bathed her face for some time. After she had dried it, they slowly ascended the path to the house.

"How am I now? All right, eh? You can't think how everything bores me here! I can't do any more; all this wearies me. I was not born to walk about the meadows like the cows. I like cities, salons, luxury. I should like to travel as you say and see Paris, London, Vienna. How stupid Lancia is! Is it not so? These eternal walks on the Bombe! That San Francisco Park! That tower of the Cathedral so black and so sad! Then always the same faces. The only amusing person in Lancia is yourself.

Whenever I see you I cannot help smiling. Why do they call you Garnet? I think your colour is more like a turquoise. You had slaves there in America. Oh! how I should like to have slaves! It is so tiresome to ask for things as a favour! But, no, in America they have yellow fever. I should prefer to go to China."

The more she went on talking, the more excited she became, contradicting her own words, as her thoughts became more and more incoherent. Don Santos tried to make a remark, but she stopped him by putting her hand on his mouth.

"Let me talk, sir! I want to tell you all."

The Indian began to be anxious as the excitement of the girl went on increasing. She chattered away in a familiar, rude sort of way.

"Give me a cigar."

"Fernanda! A cigar! You will be ill."

"Silence! what are you saying fool? I sick! You are trying to annoy me!

Give me a cigar or I will leave you here."

The Indian took out his case, and the pretty heiress took one, bit off the top with her sharp teeth, and asked for a match. Garnet gave her a lighted one, at the same time shaking his head in disapproval. When she had taken two or three whiffs, she made a gesture of disgust and exclaimed:

"What infamous cigars! Look, smoke it yourself."

And she put it in his mouth. There was no gesture of disgust with Garnet as he smoked it.

"I should think I will smoke it!" he said with a smile of beat.i.tude.

"They cost me two hundred dollars the thousand, but now you have tried one, they are worth a million."

"Come on and don't make impertinent speeches. Take me to the house. This glare sickens me."

They reached the courtyard arm in arm. There a young fellow called out to them:

"Where are you off to? The people are in the wood."

"Tell the people that I scorn them all," returned Fernanda, with an angry gesture that provoked a smile from the youth.

"You don't know the house?" she added, lowering her voice and turning to Don Santos. "Then I will be your guide, you shall see it."

They mounted the mouldy, shabby staircase, and Fernanda, chattering continuously, did the honours of all the rooms to the Indian.

"Here is the celebrated Countess's Chamber!" she exclaimed with a peculiar intonation when they reached it. "I am tired."

They went in and the girl shut the door.

"It is pretty, eh? It is the most beautiful and the brightest room in the house. If this furniture could only tell amusing secrets, it never would have done. Look, tell me something to make me laugh or you will see me cry like a very schoolgirl. See now, I am crying. Sit down here you silly. What a pretty waistcoat you have on! How well it shows the line of the figure! Look at this couch. It is large, eh? It is wide, it is beautiful, it is artistic. Look, then, I should like to burn it. To avoid sitting on it I am going to sit on your knees."

And she suited the action to the words. Garnet lost his head when he found himself with such a sweet burden, and with incredible audacity he put an arm round her waist.

The girl jumped up as if she had been pinched.

"What are you doing, you brute? Do you think that we are in the plantation and that I am some black wild creature?"

After looking at him for some time with angry eyes, her face cleared and her lips expanded in a sweet smile.

"Do you love me very much?"

"Of course not," said the Indian, in a teasing tone.

"Then you shall have one minute's happiness. See, I will let you give me a kiss, mind only one, and you must swear that n.o.body shall know about it."

The Indian made a solemn promise.