"
At these words a radiant joy spread over Alessandro's face. He had
not hoped for this. He felt, rather than heard, that Ramona
understood him. He felt, for the first time, a personal relation
between himself and her.
"It is well," he said, in the brief phrase so frequent with his people.
"It is well." And with a reverent inclination of his head, he walked
away. Margarita, still dawdling surlily over her work in Father
Salvierderra's room, heard Alessandro's voice, and running to
discover to whom he was speaking, caught these last, words.
Peering from behind a curtain, she saw the look with which he said
them; saw also the expression on Ramona's face as she listened.
Margarita clenched her hands. The seed had blossomed. Ramona
had an enemy.
"Oh, but I am glad Father Salvierderra has gone!" said the girl,
bitterly. "He'd have had this out of me, spite of everything. I
haven't got to confess for a year, maybe; and much can happen in
that time."
Much, indeed!
VIII
FELIPE gained but slowly. The relapse was indeed, as Father
Salvierderra had said, worse than the original attack.
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