Would not you rather be dead,
Senorita, than be as I am to-day?"
Each word he spoke but intensified Ramona's determination to
share his lot. "Alessandro," she interrupted, "there are many men
among your people who have wives, are there not?"
"Yes, Senorita!" replied Alessandro, wonderingly.
"Have their wives left them and gone away, now that this trouble
has come?"
"No, Senorita." still more wonderingly; "how could they?"
"They are going to stay with them, help them to earn money, try to
make them happier, are they not?"
"Yes, Senorita." Alessandro began to see whither these questions
tended. It was not unlike the Senora's tactics, the way in which
Ramona narrowed in her lines of interrogation.
"Do the women of your people love their husbands very much?"
"Very much, Senorita." A pause. It was very dark now. Alessandro
could not see the hot currents running swift and red over Ramona's
face; even her neck changed color as she asked her last question.
"Do you think any one of them loves her husband more than I love
you, Alessandro?"
Alessandro's arms were again around her, before the words were
done.
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