“I can’t quite drift as if I had no soul of my own, can I?”
“Sometimes it is best.”
There was a pause. Cipriano stayed outside the conversation altogether, in a dusky world of his own, apart and secretly hostile.
“I have been thinking so much about you,” she said to Ramón, “and wondering whether it is worth while.”
“What?”
“What you are doing; trying to change the religion of these people. If they have any religion to change. I don’t think they are a religious people. They are only superstitious. I have no use for men and women who go crawling down a church aisle on their knees, or holding up their arms for hours. There’s something stupid and wrong about it. They never worship a God. Only some little evil power. I have been wondering so much if it is worth while giving yourself to them, and exposing yourself to them. It would be horrible if you were really killed. I have seen you look dead.”
“Now you see me look alive again,” he smiled.
But a heavy silence followed.
“I believe Don Cipriano knows them better than you do. I believe he knows best, if it is any good,” she said.
“And what does he say?” asked Ramón.