Читать книгу Chata and Chinita. A Novel онлайн

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Vicente, silenced but enraged, glared upon Ramirez as he bade farewell to Doña Feliz. As he took her hand, he bent and lightly kissed it. The action was a common one,—Doña Feliz scarcely noticed it; her eyes rested upon her son, who shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, his garrulity checked, his gaze confused and alarmed.

“We shall be gone at daybreak. You will be glad to be rid of us,” the General said laughingly; “yet we are innocent folk, and would do you no harm. Hark! how sweetly our followers are singing,”—and, indeed, the plaintive notes of a love ditty faintly floated on the air. “My adieus to the Señora de Sanchez and her lovely children.”

While the General spoke thus, with many low bows and formal words of parting, he was quite in the shadow of the wall. Doña Feliz could scarce see his face, but Chinita’s eyes never left it. As he turned away, a sob rose in her throat; but for a sudden fear, she would have darted after him. Her blood seemed afire. There was something in the very atmosphere stirred by this man that roused her wild nature, even as the advent of its fellow casts an admonishing scent upon the air breathed by some savage beast.