CHAPTER XVI
PRICKED by her feminine curiosity, Sebastiana impatiently awaited the hour of her mistress’s rendez-vous.
She was in the kitchen, in the corral covered over by a wooden shelter. Several times Sebastiana carried her small lamp over to the table where she kept an alarm clock to discover the hour. A little before ten she took off the old shoes she wore, and in her stocking feet crossed the corral, keeping close under the balcony of the house.
In this fashion, with noiseless step, she reached the corner of the building nearest the window of Elena’s bedroom. Then she sat down on the ground, huddling close to a pillar. In this fashion she could hear without being seen.
In a little while she made out through the darkness the form of Manos Duras approaching the house. She saw him take off his spurs and hide them in his belt, after which he cautiously went up the wooden outside stairway. Shortly after this the window of the señora’s bedroom opened and she came out, with a sign to her visitor that he was to make no noise.
Sebastiana strained her ears to hear, but the window was so far away that it was only with the greatest effort of concentration that she could catch a few fragments of phrases. The words that passed between the speakers were uttered in such low tones that she could not be certain that she heard them correctly. It seemed to her that she caught the names “Celinda” and “Flor de Rio Negro”; but she concluded that her sense of hearing must be playing her a trick.
“What has my former little mistress got to do with the schemes of these people?” she asked herself. “You must be imagining things, Sebastiana!”
Thrusting her head out from the shadow of the pillar, she succeeded in seeing both speakers. Manos Duras was nodding approbation of what the señora was saying. Then he spoke briefly, emphasizing what he had to say with impressive gestures. At a certain point he tried to seize the marquesa’s hand, but she drew back, with a movement that expressed both repugnance and hauteur. At once he appeared to repent of his impulsiveness, and in a louder tone, and as though making a promise, she said to him,
“We’ll speak of this some other time, when you have fulfilled your part of the contract. You understand what we have agreed upon.”
And she took leave of him with a certain coquetry of manner, although she succeeded in keeping out of his reach.