ght in the mission. He omitted nothing--the menacing cross, the
sacrilegious theft, the deliberate murder; the pictures were painted
with blood and fire. She did not interrupt him with cry or gasp, but her
expression changed many times. Horror held her eyes for a time, then
slowly retreated, and his own fierce pride looked back at him. She
lifted her head when he had finished, her throat throbbing, her nostrils
twitching.
"Thou hast done that--for me?"
"Ay, Ysabel!"
"Thou hast murdered thy immortal soul--for me?"
"Ysabel!"
"Thou lovest me like that! O God, in what likeness hast thou made me? In
whatsoever image it may have been, I thank Thee--and repudiate Thee!"
She took the cross from her throat and broke it in two pieces with her
strong white fingers.
"Thou art lost, eternally damned: but I will go down to hell with thee."
And she threw herself upon him and kissed him on the mouth.
For a moment he forgot the lesson thrust into his brain by the hideous
fingers of the desert. He was almost happy. He put his hands about her
warm face after a time. "We must go to-night," he said. "I went to
General Castro's to change my clothes, and learned that a ship sails
for the United States to-night. We will go on that. I dare not delay
twenty-four hours. It may be that they are upon my heels now. How can we
meet?"
Her thoughts had travelled faster than his words, and she answered at
once: "There is a ball at the Custom-house to-night. I will go. You will
have a boat below the rocks. You know that the Custom-house is on the
rocks at the end of the town, near the fort. No? It will be easier for
me to slip from the ball-room than from this house. Only tell me where
you will meet me."
"The ship sails at midnight. I too will go to the ball; for with me you
can escape more easily. Have you a maid you can trust?"
"My Luisa is faithful."
"Then tell her to be on the beach between the rocks of the Custom-house
and the Fort with what you must take with you."
Again he kissed her many times, but softly. "Wear thy pearls to-night. I
wish to see thy triumphant hour in Monterey."
"Yes," she said, "I shall wear the pearls."
VI
The corridor of the Custom-house had been enclosed to protect the
musicians and supper table from the wind and fog. The store-room had
been cleared, the floor scrubbed, the walls hung with the colours of
Mexico. All in honour of Pio Pico, again in brief exile from his beloved
Los Angel
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