The vista of the future, for him, was filled full by thoughts
which left no room for love's dreaming; one purpose and one fear
filled it,-- the purpose to be his father's worthy successor, for Pablo
was old now, and very feeble; the fear, that exile and ruin were in
store for them all.
It was of these things he had been thinking as be walked alone, in
advance of his men, on the previous night, when he first saw
Ramona kneeling at the brook. Between that moment and the
present, it seemed to Alessandro that some strange miracle must
have happened to him. The purposes and the fears had alike gone.
A face replaced them; a vague wonder, pain, joy, he knew not
what, filled him so to overflowing that he was bewildered. If he
had been what the world calls a civilized man, he would have
known instantly and would have been capable of weighing,
analyzing, and reflecting on his sensations at leisure. But he was
not a civilized man; he had to bring to bear on his present situation
only simple, primitive, uneducated instincts and impulses. If
Ramona had been a maiden of his own people or race, he would
have drawn near to her as quickly as iron to the magnet.
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