Chata and Chinita: A Novel

The man who had been murdered years before had been a shadow, a myth, in her mind. He became at that supreme moment a living presence, joining with, blent with, the martyred Ped...

For many succeeding days Chata seemed to herself to be struggling to awaken from a torturing dream. The household was very quiet. Doña Rita and Rosario went gloomily to work to...

“No, rather to gallant deeds,” said the young captain, his voice accentuating the distinction. “But you, Doña Isabel, like us who serve him, must be content not to inquire too c...

“And the first American you have known has had the benefit of the preconception,” interrupted Ashley, grimly. “Well, it is something to know the secret of a contemptuous indiffe...

“Be silent!” cried Chinita, with a tardy repentance of her confidence. “How do I know that I am not the worst of evil thinkers, and a fool, a very fool? Look thou, Florencia, it...

Gregorio Garcia knew so well the peculiar ideas of honor among bandits as well as the spirit of his countrymen that perhaps he was assured that no immediate risk would follow th...

This thought indeed entered the mind of a man who riding through the drizzling rain caught a glimpse of the unusual light through the unguarded doorway, and reining his horse ga...

Though Chinita saw him at his old place on the morrow, she understood that an eternal farewell had been made to their old relations and their old life. All that remained of them...

Pepé muttered his adieus and bowed himself away in some confusion. Chinita looked after him meaningly; he caught her glance and then the motion of her lips. His heart beat wildl...

“Do not distress yourself to explain, Señorita,” interrupted Ashley, coldly. “Rise, I beg, and I will go at once; but that you may not waste more time in waiting, I will tell yo...

Chata soon perceived that as the day wore on, and she began to exhibit signs of fatigue from the hurried march and the heat, her presence caused far more anxiety than triumph to...

Though Chinita as was usual was made the scapegoat for Chata’s fault,—Doña Rita averring that the girl possessed an irresistible power for evil over her own innocent children,—C...

To urge the matter further seemed to Ashley worse than useless. He had learned enough of marriage laws in Mexico to feel that to mention the name of Herlinda Garcia in connectio...

Chata had also noticed the young officer (a slender undersized young fellow, with a swarthy lean face and keen black eyes, shaded by a profusely decorated sombrero), but merely...

Doña Isabel sank back in her chair as if struck by a sharp weapon. “The American! the American!” she repeated again and again. She felt as though a hand had been thrust from the...

The woman had unwittingly conjured up a vision that thrilled the imagination of the listener. “Oh!” she cried with a sudden gesture of repulsion and weariness, “I am sick of thi...

“Ah, Leon Vallé! you know now who accuses you,” cried the woman. “Oh, is not this a sweet revenge, to curse you by the lips of your own child,—the child you robbed me of? What!...

But at the moment when the two fiery steeds would have clashed together, a woman threw herself before Ramirez and caught his arm, calling aloud his name. With that wonderful pow...

For many days the officers in command at various points had been in possession of orders,—which it is to be conjectured were in many cases transmitted to the abbesses of the pri...

Ramirez, well as he knew the tricks of the genuine ranchero, whether of the higher or lower grade, was himself for a time deceived,—for, with far less than his usual astuteness,...

“Life of my soul!” cried Chinita. “How I have longed for you! Did you not see me perched in the niche of the wall? Ay, how Doña Isabel would frown if she knew!”

The usual visits of ceremony had passed between the contracting families; the Señor Fernandez had declared himself satisfied with the generous provisions which had been made for...

The daring traveller had been obliged to enter Mexico at some obscure point. The Liberal government under Juarez was installed at Vera Cruz; the Conservatives held the City of M...

The new-comer seemed to have risen out of the ground, so stealthily had he approached. It would have been quite possible for him, tall as he was, to have skirted the wall withou...

Nevertheless, he was about to enter, and had indeed made a hasty movement toward the staircase that led to the upper rooms, when an unexpected sound arrested him. Planillos drew...

Don Ignacio Garcia conducted her immediately to the hacienda, where his jealous nature found no cause for suspicion; and there the little Isabel was born; and on beholding the w...

Sooner than was usual, even in that land of early movement, Don Alonzo warned him it was growing late. It was not too late or early for Rosario to wave her little brown hand fro...

The pale dawn, creeping over the hills behind which the sun was still hidden, revealing to the accustomed sight of Doña Feliz a narrow, irregular street of adobe hovels; a tiny...

“That which puzzles me is,” said Chinita, gravely, turning her head on one side and looking at him keenly by the dim light, “why you have told me this. Have you been sent with a...

The confusion and excitement of the arrival gave almost instantly an opportunity for him to pour into the ear of the young girl the burning questions which rushed to his lips. I...

The next morning it was known that the Señorita Herlinda was to have change, was to go to the capital, that Mecca of all Mexicans. Doña Isabel and Feliz were to accompany her. T...

Upon the first day of the feast not one female child of the many who lived within the hacienda limits was absent from the church; and they were so many that the proud mothers, w...

There was no table set. The fires burned at the corners of the plaza, and the women stood over them, dispensing the fragrant contents of the jars to all comers. Yet in this appa...

It was scarcely two hours past midnight, though his interview with Chinita had lasted long, when Ashley cautiously emerged from the inn, and took his way toward the open country...

Ruiz’s knowledge of this strengthened his resolution to ignore the past, and suffer no ill-timed revelations to interfere with his determination to win at one step love and fort...

Ramirez grew strangely taciturn and nervous. Not even the letters of Ruiz aroused him. In his heart he distrusted his godson, as he did all men but Reyes, all women but Chata. H...

While the discovery of the murder had caused this wild excitement outside the walls of the hacienda, a far different scene was being enacted within. Mademoiselle La Croix, the g...

These few years of which the flight has been thus briefly noted, had wrought a subtle change in the appearance of Tres Hermanos as well as in the life of its inhabitants. Gradua...

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issue...

Meanwhile the two children at the great house were seldom seen below stairs, so cherished and guarded was their infancy. Rosario grew a sturdy, robust little creature, with stra...

Pedro, not so deeply versed in the dissimulation of the higher class as was Doña Isabel in that of the lower, looked at her a moment in utter incredulity. He learned nothing fro...

“I always told Doña Isabel,” interrupted Feliz, “that such freedom of intercourse between youth and maiden would but lead to weariness on one side or the other. But she was a ha...

It was when Ashley Ward had gained a certain assurance of success and ultimate wealth, that he wooed and won the object of his early, generous search, his early protecting inter...