Читать книгу Chata and Chinita. A Novel онлайн

92 страница из 163

Some of the women laughed; all the men joked Pedro when they saw the child, though a yellow nimbus of hair around its head and the fineness of its clothing puzzled them.

Pedro had hastily thrust the slip of paper into his breast, scarce knowing why he did so; for though some instinct as powerful as if it were a living voice that spoke, urged him to secrete the child, to rush away with it into the fastnesses of the mountains, rather than to render it to Doña Isabel, he did not doubt for a moment that she herself had provided for its mysterious appearance at the hacienda, that it might be received as a waif, and cared for by Doña Feliz as her representative.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, and he heard again Herlinda’s despairing cry: “Watch for my child! Protect it! protect it!” Was it possible that she had actually known that this disposition would be made of her child? Involuntarily his arms closed around it, and he clasped it to his broad breast, looking defiantly around.

“Tush, Pedro, give it to me!” cried one stout matron, longing to take the little creature to her motherly breast. “What know you of nursing infants? A drop of mother’s milk would be more welcome to it than all thy dry hugs. Ah, here comes the Señor Administrador,” and the crowd opened to admit the passage of Don Rafael, who attracted by the commotion had hastened to the spot in no small anger, ordering the crowd to disperse; but he was greeted with an incomprehensible chorus of which he only heard the one word “baby,” and exclaimed in indignation,—