Few words were spoken after this daring expedition into a microcosm—an enterprise not less bold than the attempt to measure the distance between the stars, or to gauge the infinite realms of space. Those who were present sat in silent suspense, as they might await the resurrection of a dead man or the creation of a new world. Golfin said nothing definite either:
"Iris contractile," he muttered. "Retina sensitive.... Nerves living and sound...." And yet the function, the fact, the act of seeing—where was that?
"Time will show," said Don Teodoro, as he carefully adjusted the bandages. "Patience."
And his leonine face expressed neither disappointment nor triumph, neither hope nor doubt. Science had done all she could; it was almost like an act of creation, like many others she has enabled us to perform in this nineteenth century. Nature, thus boldly defied and resenting such an intrusion on her secrets, held her peace.
The patient was strictly forbidden to see any one but his father, who waited on him; no one else was admitted. Nela went several times to enquire for the invalid; but she never crossed the threshold, she waited outside till Don Manuel should come out, or his daughter, or some member of the household. The young lady, after giving her the fullest information and painting in lively colors the anxiety they all felt, would go out to walk with her. One day Florentina insisted that Nela should show her where she lived, and they went down to Centeno's hovel; the squalid interior horrified and disgusted Florentina; above all, the baskets which served as the orphan's bed.
"Well, Nela will very soon come to live with me," said Florentina, getting out of the stuffy hole as fast as she could, "and then she will have a bedroom just like mine, and will dress and feed as I do."
Dame Centeno and her two girls stood open-mouthed with astonishment at this speech. They began to think that the hapless and neglected orphan must have found her father in some Prince or King, as the orphans do in the tales.
When they had left the house behind them Florentina said to her companion: "Pray to God day and night that He may grant my dear cousin the blessing which we all enjoy and which He has denied to him. What an anxious state we live in! If he gains his sight a thousand delightful things will follow and many difficulties will be removed. I have made a solemn vow to the Virgin; I have promised that if she grants my cousin his sight I will take under my care the very poorest creature I can find, and give her all that can make her entirely forget her poverty, making her my own equal in every respect, as happy and as comfortable as I am. And it is not enough merely to give her clothes, or set her down to a table with plenty of soup and meat. No, there is another charity which is worth more than all the broken food and frippery in the world—kindness, respect, consideration, and a name. I will give her these too, and teach her to respect herself. I have found the person I want, María—it is you. I have promised the Holy Virgin from the bottom of my soul that if she will bestow the gift of sight on my cousin, you shall be my sister. You shall be the same as myself, in my house, exactly like my sister." As she spoke Nela's Virgin clasped the girl in her arms and kissed her on the forehead.