e. Don't you know that Demetrio is on the point of
becoming a general, you silly girl? He'll be a very wealthy man, with
horses galore; and you'll have jewels and clothes and a fine house and
a lot of money to spend. Just imagine what a life you would lead with
him!"

Camilla stared up at the blue sky so he should not read the expression
in her eyes. A dead leaf shook slowly loose from the crest of a tree
swinging slowly on the wind, fell like a small dead butterfly at her
feet. She bent down and took it in her fingers. Then, without looking
at him, she murmured:

"It's horrible to hear you talk like that.... I like you ... no one
else.... Ah, well, go then, go: I feel ashamed now. Please leave me!"

She threw away the leaf she had crumpled in her hand and covered her
face with a corner of her apron. When she opened her eyes, Luis
Cervantes had disappeared.

She followed the river trail. The river seemed to have been sprinkled
with a fine red dust. On its surface drifted now a sky of variegated
colors, now the dark crags, half light, half shadow. Myriads of
luminous insects twinkled in a hollow. Camilla, standing on the beach
of washed, round stones, caught a reflection of herself in the waters;
she saw herself in her yellow blouse with the green ribbons, her white
skirt, her carefully combed hair, her wide eyebrows and broad forehead,
exactly as she had dressed to please Luis. She burst into tears.

Among the reeds, the frogs chanted the implacable melancholy of the
hour. Perched on a dry root, a dove wept also.

XV

That evening, there was much merrymaking at the dance, and a great
quantity of mezcal was drunk. "I miss Camilla," said Demetrio in a loud
voice. Everybody looked about for Camilla.

"She's sick, she's got a headache," said Agapita harshly, uneasy as she
caught sight of the malicious glances leveled at her.

When the dance was over, Demetrio, somewhat unsteady on his feet,
thanked all the kind neighbors who had welcomed them and promised that
when the revolution had triumphed he would remember them one and all,
because "hospital or jail is a true test of friendship."

"May God's hand lead you all," said an old woman.

"God bless you all and keep you well," others added.

Utterly drunk, Maria Antonia said: "Come back soon, damn soon!"

On the morrow, Maria Antonia, who, though she was pockmarked and
walleyed, nevertheless enjoyed a notorious reputation--indeed it was
confidently proclaim