“What for?—I mean,” Teresa added, “do you long for them?”
“Sometimes,” said Kate, the tears coming to her eyes.
The boat rowed on in silence.
“And Cipriano?” Teresa asked timidly.
“Ah!” said Kate shortly. “He is such a stranger to me.”
Teresa was silent for some moments.
“I think a man is always a stranger to a woman,” said Teresa. “Why should it not be so?”
“But you,” said Kate, “haven’t any children.”
“Ramón has.—And he says: ‘I cast my bread upon the waters. It is my children too. And if they return to me after many days, I shall be glad.’—Is it not the same for you?”
“Not quite!” said Kate. “I am a woman, I am not a man.”