FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  
ncestors to do here? You have ruined the girl, and you shall make amends, here and now." Miralda clasped her hands in a passion of entreaty, and her betrothed, the boatman, sank upon a bench, overcome with despair. "I am sorry for you," continued Tacon, "but there is no other way. Proceed with the ceremony." Knowing Tacon to be inflexible, and with a wholesome dread of punishment in case of refusal, the young rake finally expressed his willingness to yield to the command, and with a freckled trooper for bridesmaid, and another for groomsman, the marriage rites were said. While the priest was speaking Tacon had written a note which he gave to an orderly, instructing him to deliver it to the captain of the guard. After the nobleman, flushed and trembling with anger, and the half-fainting girl had been pronounced man and wife, the boatman meanwhile abandoning himself to a frenzy of tears, Tacon said to the count, "Your wife will remain here for the present. It is my order that you return to your country-house alone. You will depart at once." With blazing eye, widened nostril, and hard-set jaw, Count Almonte left the room without any recognition of his bride, without the usual acknowledgment of the governor-general's presence. Tacon bade the young woman be seated, and told Mantanez also to remain, as he wished to speak with them after a time. Ten minutes passed. Some guns were heard at a distance. In ten minutes more an officer hastily entered the room. Tacon looked up from his writing. "Report, captain," he commanded. "I have to inform your Excellency that your orders have been obeyed. The Count Almonte lies dead with nine bullets in his body." The general arose, took the hand of the young woman and placed it in that of the boatman. "Countess," he said, "you are the widow of a rich man. You are sole heir to the estate of the late Count Almonte. As to you, sir, I presume you have no objection to wedding a lady so well provided with this world's goods. Adieu, Madame Countess, and may your second marriage be happier than your first." The Cited Did Alonzo Morelos begrudge liberty or happiness to Felipe Guayos? Surely the life of a Havanese artisan could have mattered little to a prosperous lawyer. Politics may have set the big man's enmity against the little one, or it may possibly have been that more advanced form of politics that is called patriotism. It was a good time for a man to refrain from a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Almonte

 

boatman

 

Countess

 
captain
 
remain
 

marriage

 
general
 

minutes

 

wished

 

bullets


orders
 

distance

 

looked

 

entered

 

hastily

 
inform
 

Excellency

 

officer

 

passed

 
commanded

writing

 
Report
 

obeyed

 

objection

 

artisan

 

Havanese

 

mattered

 
prosperous
 

Surely

 

liberty


begrudge

 

happiness

 

Felipe

 

Guayos

 

lawyer

 

Politics

 

called

 

politics

 

patriotism

 

refrain


advanced

 

enmity

 

possibly

 

Morelos

 

Alonzo

 

presume

 
Mantanez
 

wedding

 

estate

 

happier