“Brothers of light,” Pemberton translated it. “Who would not be glad to deserve such a title? To be a true ‘Brother of light!’”
IV
THE BLACK VEIL
| Tres jueves hay en el año que relumbran mas que el sol; Corpus Christi, Jueves Santo, y el dia de la Ascencion. | Three Thursdays in the year Shine brighter than the sun; Corpus Christi, Holy Thursday, And the day of the Ascension. |
“Hark, Pan pipes!” said J., “don’t you hear that lovely thin music of the shepherd’s flute?”
“Here in Seville? Is it possible?”
“Why not? All things are possible when you are living half in the tenth century, half in the twentieth!”
The sylvan melody, shrilling louder, pierced the city’s drone. At our gate the piper paused and played his little tune again. He was a tall young man with a bold eye and a gay lilt of the head. His blue apron was tucked under his jacket, he wore a red rose behind his ear. There was something free and debonair about him that spoke the youth of the world; his music stirred the blood. I could have followed him and his pipe through the streets without a thought of the business of the day.
“A wandering knife grinder from La Mancha,” said J., pulling out his sketchbook. “Find some scissors or something for him to sharpen. Can’t you keep him busy a moment, while I try to draw him?”
He would not stay; you cannot deceive a Manchegan. He saw at a glance there was “nothing doing” for him in our patio; sounded his flute and went lightly on his way, his wheel at his back. If knives were to grind, he was ready to grind them even on a fiesta grande like Holy Thursday.
Before his music was out of earshot, Concepcion appeared at the gate, a pink japonica in her hair, her fan the same color, a shade darker. Behind her, like a tall, thin shadow, came Pemberton.