Chapter XX: Part 20

But the man had a sharp, watchful look in the corner of his eye: to see if she were feeling some covert hostility. He wanted her to acquiesce in the hymn, in the drum, in the whole mood. Like a child he wanted her to acquiesce. But if she were going to be hostile, he would be quick to be first in the hostility. Her hostile judgment would make a pure enemy of him.

Ah, all men were alike!

At that moment the man stood up, with soft suddenness, and she heard Cipriano’s voice from the balcony above:

“What is it, Lupe?”

“Està la Patróna,” answered the servant.

Kate rose to her feet and looked up. She saw the head and the naked shoulders of Cipriano above the parapet of the balcony.

“I will come up,” she said.

And slowly she went through the great iron gates into the passage-way. Lupe, following, bolted the doors behind her.

On the terrace above she found Ramón and Cipriano both with their upper bodies naked, waiting for her in silence. She was embarrassed.

“I waited to hear the new hymn,” she said.

“And how does it seem to you?” said Ramón, in Spanish.

“I like it,” she said.

“Let us sit down,” said Ramón, still in Spanish. He and she sat in the cane rocking-chairs: Cipriano stood by the wall of the terrace.

She had come to make a sort of submission: to say she didn’t want to go away. But finding them both in the thick of their Quetzalcoatl mood, with their manly breasts uncovered, she was not very eager to begin. They made her feel like an intruder. She did not pause to realise that she _was_ one.

“We don’t meet in your Morning Star, apparently, do we!” she said, mocking, but with a slight quaver.

A deeper silence seemed suddenly to hold the two men.

“And I suppose a woman is really _de trop_, even there, when two men are together.”

But she faltered a bit in the saying. Cipriano, she knew, was baffled and stung when she taunted him.

Ramón answered her, with the gentleness that could come straight out of his heart: but still in Spanish:

“Why, Cousin, what is it?”

Her lip quivered, as she suddenly said:

“I don’t really want to go away from you.”

Ramón looked swiftly at Cipriano, then said:

“I know you don’t.”

But the gentle protective tone of his voice only made Kate rebel again. She brimmed over with sudden tears, crying:

“You don’t really want me.”

“Yes, I want you!--Verdad! Verdad!” exclaimed Cipriano, in his low, secret, almost muttering voice.

And even amid her tears, Kate was thinking to herself: _What a fraud I am! I know all the time it is I who don’t altogether want them. I want myself to myself. But I can fool them so that they shan’t find out._

For she heard the hot, phallic passion in Cipriano’s voice.

Then came the voice of Ramón, like a chill:

“It is you who don’t want,” he said, in English this time. “You needn’t commit yourself to _us_. Listen to your own best desire.”

“And if it tells me to go away?” she flashed, defiant through the end of her tears.

“Then go! Oh certainly go!”

Suddenly her tears came afresh.

“I knew you didn’t really want me,” she wept.

Then Cipriano’s voice said, with a hot, furtive softness of persuasion:

“You are not his! He would not tell you!”

“That is very true,” said Ramón. “Don’t listen to me!”

He spoke in Spanish. And Kate glanced up sharply through her tears, to see him going quietly, but swiftly, away.

She wiped her face, suddenly calm. Then she looked with wet eyes at Cipriano. He was standing erect and alert, like a little fighting male, and his eyes glowed black and uncannily as he met her wet, limpid glance.

Yes, she was a bit afraid of him too, with his inhuman black eyes.

“You don’t want me to go, do you?” she pleaded.

A slow, almost foolish smile came over his face, and his body was slightly convulsed. Then came his soft-tongued Indian speech, as if all his mouth were soft, saying in Spanish, but with the “r” sound almost lost:

“_Yo! Yo!_”--his eyebrows lifted with queer mock surprise, and a little convulsion went through his body again. “_Te quiero mucho! Mucho te quiero! Mucho! Mucho!_ I like you very much! Very much!”

It sounded so soft, so soft-tongued, of the soft, wet, hot blood, that she shivered a little.

“You won’t let me go!” she said to him.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Inconsistencies in hyphenation, spelling, and italicization have been standardized. Except for the errors listed below and the standardization, spelling has been retained as originally published.

The following printer errors has been changed:

Page 12: “fellow esconced between” “fellow ensconced between”
Page 22: “came owards Kate” “came towards Kate”
Page 31: “wih a dead laugh” “with a dead laugh”
Page 63: “herself from wordly” “herself from worldly”
Page 65: “carressive, speaking” “caressive, speaking”
Page 80: “off into banalties” “off into banalities”
Page 88: “Orilla is an hoted” “Orilla is an hotel”
Page 93: “little handfulls from the” “little handfuls from the”
Page 100: “thunder annd wings” “thunder and wings”
Page 102: “go with Quetzacoatl.” “go with Quetzalcoatl.”
Page 126: “a torquoise ornament” “a turquoise ornament”
Page 143: “streets aften ten” “streets after ten”
Page 146: “horrible, horrrible” “horrible, horrible”
Page 155: “head, stupified and” “head, stupefied and”
Page 169: “posteriors hutched up” “posteriors hunched up”
Page 193: “my eyes twilight” “my eyes the twilight”
Page 210: “rest you head” “rest your head”
Page 216: “like a streeet lamp” “like a street lamp”
Page 256: “curiosly heavy with” “curiously heavy with”
Page 258: “_Halálá!_ he said.” “_Holálá!_ he said.”
Page 268: “One most disentangle” “One must disentangle”
Page 312: “Holà! You there!” “Holá! You there!”
Page 354: “Cipriona put over her” “Cipriano put over her”
Page 356: “acting an the helpless” “acting on the helpless”
Page 361: “stood a hugh dark figure” “stood a huge dark figure”
Page 390: “circling with sauve” “circling with suave”
Page 391: “ignominous drab uniform” “ignominious drab uniform”
Page 393: “black head aginst his” “black head against his”
Page 395: “living Hutzilopochtli” “living Huitzilopochtli”
Page 403: “began to clear” “began to sing clear”
Page 414: “in the electric fl” “in the electric flow”
Page 423: “soft, senuous brutality” “soft, sensuous brutality”
Page 432: “same, whover was in” “same, whoever was in”