If you can promise me this, I will resign her to you
now, and face death without even the sad consolation of seeing her by
me to the last.'
"I promised to carry out her wishes, and also to see the child as often
as circumstances would allow, and when she grew up to find her a good
husband. But I would not deprive her of the child then. I told her
that if she died, Margarita would be conveyed to the French ship in
the harbour, and afterwards to me, and that I knew where to place her
with good-hearted, simple peasants who loved me, and would obey my
wishes in all things.
"She was satisfied, and I left her to make the necessary arrangements
to carry out my plans. A few weeks later Transita expired, and the
child was brought to me. I then sent her to Batata's house, where,
ignorant of the secret of her birth, she has been brought up as her
mother wished her to be. May she never, like the unhappy Transita,
fall into the power of a ravening beast in man's shape."
"Amen!" I exclaimed. "But surely, if this child will be entitled to
a fortune some day, it will only be right that she should have it."
"We do not worship gold in this country," he replied. "With us the
poor are just as happy as the rich, their wants are so few, and easily
satisfied. It would be too much to say that I love the child more than
I love anyone else; I think only of Transita's wishes; that for me is
the only right in the matter.
Pages:
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188