Felipe felt as if he
had been under a spell all along, not to have realized this. "That's
what I told my mother!" he groaned,-- "that it drove her to running
away! Oh, my sweet Ramona! what will become of her? I will go
after them, and bring them back;" and Felipe rose, and hastily
dressing himself, ran down the veranda steps, to gain a little more
time to think. He returned shortly, to meet his mother standing in
the doorway, with pale, affrighted face.
"Felipe!" she cried, "Ramona is not here."
"I know it," he replied in an angry tone. "That is what I told you we
should do,-- drive her to running away with Alessandro!"
"With Alessandro!" interrupted the Senora.
"Yes," continued Felipe,-- "with Alessandro, the Indian! Perhaps
you think it is less disgrace to the names of Ortegna and Moreno to
have her run away with him, than to be married to him here under
our roof! I do not! Curse the day, I say, when I ever lent myself to
breaking the girl's heart! I am going after them, to fetch them
back!"
If the skies had opened and rained fire, the Senora had hardly less
quailed and wondered than she did at these words; but even for fire
from the skies she would not surrender till she must.
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