“True, señor, though I belong no more to the gardens;––no, not to gardens, but to the desert. Neither have I place nor power today, and I may never have, but I give back to you this witness of your great favor. If a day comes when I, Jocasta, can give favor in return, bring or send this witness of the ride tonight. I will redeem it.”
“The favor is to me, and calls for no redemption,” said Kit awkward at the regal poise of her, and enchanted by the languorous glance and movement of her. Even the reaching out of her hand made him think of Tula’s words, ‘a humming bird,’ if one could imagine such a jewel-winged thing weighted down with black folds of mourning.
“A caged humming bird with broken wings!” and that memory brought another thought, and he fumbled the bullet, and gave the first steady look into those emerald, side-glancing eyes.
“But––there is a compact I should appreciate if Doña Jocasta will do me the favor,––and it is that she sets value on the life that is now her very own, and, that she forgets not to cherish it.”
“Ah-h!” She looked up at him piteously a moment, and then the long lashes hid her eyes, and her head was bent low. “Sinful and without shame have I been! and they have told you of the knife I tried to use––here!”
She touched her breast with her slender ring-laden hand, and her voice turned mocking.
“But you see, Señor Americano, even Death will not welcome me, and neither steel nor lead will serve me!”
“Life will serve you better, señora.”
“Not yet has it done so, and I am a woman––old––old! I am twenty, señor, and refused of Death! Jocasta Benicia they named me. Jocasta Perdida it should have been to fit the soul of me, so why should I promise a man whom I do not know that I will cherish my life when I would not promise a padre? Answer me that, señor whose name has not been told me!”
“But you will promise, señora,” insisted Kit, smiling a little, though thrilled by the sadness of life’s end at twenty, “and as for names, if you are Doña Perdida I may surely name myself Don Esperenzo, for I have not only hope, but conviction, that life is worth living!”