"It is not enough that we
have been made ridiculous in the past," she said to Maruja, "by the
interference of this solemn fool, but that the memory of our friend
is to be insulted by his generosity being made into a triumph of
Pereo's idiotic ancestor. One would have thought those coyotes and
Koorotora's bones had been buried with the cruel gossip of your
relations"--(it had been the recent habit of Dona Maria to allude
to "the family" as being particularly related to Maruja alone)--
"over my poor friend. Let him beware that his ancestor's mound is
not uprooted with the pear-tree, and his heathenish temple
destroyed. If, as the engineer says, a branch of the new railroad
can be established for La Mision Perdida, I agree with him that it
can better pass at that point with less sacrifice to the domain.
It is the one uncultivated part of the park, and lies at the proper
angle."
"You surely would not consent to this, my mother?" said Maruja,
with a sudden impression of a newly found force in her mother's
character.
"Why not, child?" said the relict of Mr. Saltonstall and the
mourner of Dr. West, coldly. "I admit it was discreet of thee in
old times to have thy sentimental passages there with caballeros
who, like the guests of the hidalgo that kept a skeleton at his
feast, were reminded of the mutability of their hopes by
Koorotora's bones and the legend. But with the explosion of this
idea of a primal curse, like Eve's, on the property," added the
Dona Maria, with a slight bitterness, "thou mayest have thy citas--
elsewhere.
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