“Carissima!” he panted, feasting his eyes upon her, while a thrill passed through his coarse frame. “Madre de Dios, but you have grown beautiful! Don Mario was right––you are surely the most voluptuous object in human form that has ever crossed my path. Bien, the blessed God is still good to his little Diego!”
He started away with her, but was detained by the loud voice of Ricardo.
“Bien, Padre, my pay!”
“Cierto, hombre!” exclaimed Diego. “I was about to forget. But––a father’s joy––ah! Bien, come to me to-morrow––”
“Na, Señor Padre, but to-day––now! I have risked my life––and I have a wife and babes! You will pay me this minute!”
“Caramba, ugly beast, but I will consign you to hell! Maldito! get you gone! There are more convenient seasons than this for your business!” And, still holding tightly to the girl’s hand, he led her into the study.
The woman turned upon Ricardo with the fury of a tiger. “See now what you have done!” she screamed. “This will cost your life, for you have put into his dirty hands the soul of an angel, and he will damn it! Santa Virgen! If you had only taken the money I brought you––”
“Demon-tongue, I will take it now!” He snatched the roll of bills from her hand and bolted through the door. With a low moan the woman sank to the ground, while oblivion drew its sable veil across her mind.
Reaching the study, Diego pushed Carmen into the room and then followed, closing the door after him and throwing the iron bolt. Turning about, he stood with arms akimbo upon his bulging hips and gazed long and admiringly at the girl as she waited in expectant wonder before him. A smile of satisfaction and triumph slowly spread over his coarse features. Then it faded, and his heavy jowls and deep furrows formed into an expression, sinister and ominous, through which lewdness, debauchery, and utter corruption looked out brazenly, defiantly, into the fair, open countenance of the young girl before him. A sense of weariness and dull pain then seemed to follow. He shook his heavy head and passed a hand across his brow, as if to brush aside the confusion left by the previous night’s potations.