he. Down the stream the debris of the inundation was floating,
sweepings of wretched poverty, uprooted trees, clumps of reeds, thatched
roofs from huts, all dirty, slimy, nauseating. Bits of flotsam and
jetsam became entangled between the orange-trees and formed dams that
little by little grew with the new spoils brought along by the current.

In the distance at the very end of the lake, a number of black points
could be seen in regular rhythmic motion, stirring their legs like
aquatic flies around some roofs barely protruding above the immense
field of water. The rescuers had arrived from Valencia--with whale-boats
of the Fleet, brought overland by rail to the scene of the flood.

The provincial authorities would soon be arriving in Alcira; and the
presence of Rafael was indispensable. Cupido himself, with sudden
gravity, advised him to go and meet those boats.

While the barber was putting on his own clothes, Rafael, with intense
regret, removed his fur cloak. It seemed that in taking it off he was
losing the warmth of that night of sweet intimacy, the contact of that
soft shoulder that had for hours long been leaning against him.

Leonora meanwhile looked at him fixedly.

"We understand each other, don't we?" she asked, slowly. "Friends, with
no hope of anything more than that. If you break the pact, you'll not
enter this place again, not even by the second-story window, as you did
last night."

"Yes, friends and nothing more," Rafael murmured with a tone of sincere
sadness, that seemed to move Leonora.

Her green eyes lighted up: her pupils seemed to glitter with spangles of
gold. She stepped nearer and held out her hand.

"You're a good boy; that's the way I like you: resignation and
obedience. For this time, and in reward for your good sense, we'll make
just one exception. Let's not part thus coldly.... So,--you may kiss
me,--as they do it on the stage--here!"

And she raised her hand up toward his lips. Rafael seized it hungrily
and kissed it over and over again, until Leonora, tearing it away with a
violence that showed extraordinary strength, reprimanded him sharply.

"You rogue!... Up to mischief so soon! What an abuse of confidence?
Good-bye! Cupido is calling you.... Good-bye."

And she pushed him toward the balcony, where the barber was already
holding the boat against the railing.

"Hop in, Rafael," said Cupido. "Better lean on me; the water's going
down and the boat's very low," Rafael jumped