"And treat her well?"
"By this cross," said Ventura making the sign with his fingers.
"You and she will go to Alcalá?"
"Yes, sir, if it were to Peñon." [Footnote 173]
[Footnote 173: Gibraltar, in other words, to the end of the world.]
Pedro looked at him a moment with deep emotion, and said:
"Well, then, God bless you, my son."
Both went to Anna's in search of Perico, but he had gone out, Anna told them. At sight of them, but still more on noticing the joy and satisfaction which shone in Pedro's face, Anna's vague but distressing fears were tranquillized, and, more than all, Ventura's manner filled her with hope, for she saw that he approached Elvira and talked to her with interest and tenderness, while Pedro said, with a mysterious air and winking toward Ventura, "That young fellow is in a hurry to be married. You mustn't take so long to prepare the wedding things, neighbor; young people are not so sluggish as we old ones."
They soon left, Ventura for the hacienda at which he was employed; Pedro, who was going to his wheat-field, accompanied him, their road being the same. The wheat was very fine, not full of weeds.
"The weeds are awake," said Ventura.