Belle Willey Gue

“ The poor girl stifled her sobs long enough to listen to the old woman's remark but made no other answer to it than to shake her head; little Tessa turned her face in the direction indicated by old Mage and saw Manuello with a look of diabolical triumph mingled with fear and hatred on his dark face so that, in spite of her love for him, his expression frightened her and made even her turn away from the sight of the great change in his countenance from what she had seen resting there only that morning. ”

“ Ruth sought Estrella so that she might not, again, behold the face of him, who, for the love of her, had done a fearful crime; she wished to save the girl for she had been as innocent of wrong as she, herself, had been; both had been led away by human passion, it is true, but led within the bounds of human law, and, so, according to that human law, neither one was culpable ... the man, alone, had sinned, and whether it had been because he had been stronger, every way, than were the women in the case, we cannot judge. ”

“ In passing among the little cots, Ruth, at length, came to the one beside which Estrella was standing, anxiously looking into her patient's flushed face, for, with returning strength, Manuello's fever had risen; Ruth put one hand on the girl's shoulder and drew her away from the cot for a moment while she whispered to her:
"Do not weary yourself too much, my Dear, for we must keep our strength so as to be able to help others ... you seem distressed ... do you know your patient, personally?" ”

“ So that, when she faced the poor, ignorant, as she secretly considered Estrella, girl, it was with an air of superiority as belonging to a higher race than she, for it is a fact that uneducated persons feel any elevation above their fellows much more strongly than those who have had more insight into the humble attainments of even the wisest of human beings, for those who have been permitted to climb the heights of thought have had a glimpse of the vastness and unattainable grandeur of which even the highest human intellect must only be a spectator ... ”

“ I was going to speak to you about the girl, Estrella," he went on, watching her face while he talked; "she is in need of different surroundings than she has at present, for she is not of the race of those with whom she has been staying; the young man who calls her his half-sister knows very well that she has none of his blood in her veins, and he is almost constantly tormenting her with offers of his heart and hand, when the poor girl is really a mourner for the man whom she believed, as you did, to be worthy of a good woman's love. ”

“ Like two Titans, the two human beings struggled for supremacy, the one being actuated only by a desire to serve the right, and the other seeming to have been given almost satanic power as he felt that his own life and future freedom depended upon adding two more to his victims, for the Priest had already heard enough to make him find out more and Tessa had been about to confess all she knew to him, so, above everything on earth, the furious Cuban wished to slay the Priest and the poor girl whose only fault had been her yielding to his selfishness. ”

“ Estrella soon forgot the handsome lover over whom she mourned so bitterly; the memory of him soon became a wild, sweet dream, and had she met him as he was in San Domingo, after she had found her proper place in life, it is probable that she would have turned away from him; life's contrasts have so much to do with early love that it is often difficult to know what love is really like; Estrella, when she was an unknown waif, was differently placed than she was later on. Victorio Colenzo would not have seemed the same to her that he did when she was but an unknown, simple girl ”

“ I have no lover and I am not beautiful. Estrella does not love you, now, but she may learn to do so. I wish her to be very happy and if being your wife would make her so, and I see no reason why a girl could not be happy as your wife, Manuello, then I will do what I can to further your cause with her. I know she is in deep sorrow, today, and I intend to do all that I can to help her. ”

“ And help me, Father, help Thy humble servant who is but feeble and who often fails in doing all he should for Thee and for Thy children, help Thy humble and most unworthy servant to stand as if he were a pillar, so that she may lean upon him if her courage falters, or if she should stumble or grow weak in walking in the path that she was meant by Thee to walk upon. ”

“ Father Felix has done well, indeed, to send you to me so quickly, Estrella. I want you to feel perfectly at home, here. Old Mage will take you to your own room and tell you what little duties you may assume if you wish to do so. When you have arranged these little domestic matters, come to me in the library and we will talk over some plans I have in which I think you will be interested when you have somewhat recovered from your recent loss. I know, from my own experience, that there is but one way to carry sorrow through one's daily life and that is to be busy. ”

“ The Priest looked into his eager face and pitied while he condemned him, for he could see that he greatly mourned the absence of the girl whom he had decided in his own heart to have for his own.
"Manuello," said Father Felix, at length, having regarded him with a sympathetic smile, "you must accept the situation as calmly as you can. I have to tell you that Estrella has found another home than yours and will, from this on, be under good care and will, I hope, find happiness later on in her career ... she is a good girl and deserves to be happy," he concluded, benevolently. ”

“ He was my darling husband ... if he, also, was the lover of a trusting girl, then he sinned most grievously ... it breaks my heart," she ended, clasping her soft, white hands together spasmodically, "it breaks my heart to think he could be such a villain as you say he was. Dear Father Felix," she began again, for hope will sometimes come upon the very heels of wild despair, "dear Father Felix, are you sure that this man who is newly dead can be the Victorio Colenzo that I know ... the man who is ... I hope he is ... my own dear husband? ”

“ To say that Ruth was glad to have Estrella find her people was to put the case too lightly altogether; she was far too unselfish not to rejoice in her good fortune even though her going might mean great human loneliness for her: she had in her own inner consciousness a kind of spiritual and lasting strength on which she always leaned when outside companionship failed her in any way ... she never was alone although she often seemed to be so ... in fact, Ruth Wakefield often found herself to be alone among a crowd of human beings ... ”

“ When will you be a married woman? Do you like me as well as you did when we were little children? Do you think that Estrella will ever marry me, now that she has lost her new lover? Are you my little friend in this matter and will you assist my cause with Estrella?" seeing a look of consternation spread over her countenance, he ended his category with, "Who is your lover, little Tessa? I know you must have one for you have grown to be very fair and winsome since we were shut up in that hateful prison."
"Manuello," said the girl, "I don't believe that I will ever marry.... ”

“ I do not think there can be perpetual punishment except for those who do not wish to climb beyond it. Ruth and Father Felix felt that this was so, although the good Priest tried to think far otherwise, and, yet, deep down within his inner consciousness, he felt that God, although He is so just, yet pities those who err and welcomes all who wish to put their sins behind them in the path they find themselves upon, no matter whether they may find that path upon the earthly plane or on a higher one. ”

“ The course of human life will, sometimes, like a placid river, flow along for many years without a single change that is any more disturbing than a little, gentle ripple or an easy turn; then, all at once, like the water, that has been so clear and still, when it has reached the rapids and becomes a raging, turbid torrent, so human life may, suddenly, be stirred to its very depths ”

“ Ruth Wakefield found Estrella to be much more of a companion than she had thought she would, and found that, in the innocence and naturally responsive disposition of the girl, she could almost forget the tie that had brought them together; had the girl suspected the truth as to Victorio's relations with the mistress of the mansion on the hill, the situation might have been strained or even acute, but, as it was, Ruth only pitied, while she almost envied, the sorrow of the sweetheart of her own husband. ”

“ Do you know anything of this, Estrella? Did she tell you that she had work to do in the village? Was there something that had to be secured for the larder, at once, that would not brook delay? Dear me, I hope she will not over-tire herself. She is not very strong any more and I try to have her, always, take very good care of herself. As you may know, good Father," she went on, "old Mage is almost the only living human friend on whom I can rely and her fealty to me is beyond question. ”

“ Father Felix, alone, understood her mental attainments and was greatly bewildered when she told him that she had married Victorio Colenzo as he considered her far removed from the peons who were the regular inhabitants of the Island and among whom he labored as a missionary rather than as an equal, although his deep humility of manner always led them to believe that he was on their own level of intelligence, while the aloofness of this one woman set her apart from all of her neighbors and made her seem to them like a being from another and a higher world. ”

“ Ruth Wakefield is awake in her own room and looking down upon Havana harbor on the night of February 15th, 1898 and sees the blowing up of the Maine with her own eyes; Father Felix also sees this and hurries up the hill to talk matters over with Ruth; they form plans as to what they can do for their own country and in the service of the down-trodden people of Cuba whose sufferings under Spanish tyranny they have so often witnessed. Ruth opens her home and offers it as a refuge to all those who wish to escape from Spanish oppression. ”

“ Roosevelt's Rough Riders had, that day, advanced behind their intrepid leader, into the very jaws of death and very many of them never came again into the pleasant walks of life they'd known before that fateful day ... very many of them lay scattered over the different heights that led on to the very top of San Juan hill, inert and helpless human tenements that had once held the proud and willing spirits of the men who followed Roosevelt with love and daring. ”

“ He has many experiences as thrilling as the one in the deserted hut with Manuello. He throws himself into many a breach ... wins many a hard-fought battle, and, through it all maintains not only his religious attitude toward all mankind, but manifests a gracious and uplifting love for all who dwell upon the earth, and, at the end of his activities, resumes the humble station he occupied at first, for, as he believes, he can do more good right there in the little village of San Domingo than in a wider and more elevated station. ”

“ Victorio Colenzo is a handsome but unscrupulous fellow of mixed blood, being part Spanish and part Cuban; he has found the lonely American girl and has courted her with such dash and apparent sincerity that she has married him secretly, not even informing Father Felix of her union with the attractive stranger. This man is among the political prisoners and it is to free him from bondage that Ruth Wakefield has furnished Father Felix with means with which to overpower and overawe those who have him in charge. ”

“ I noticed a white hair only today, on her little neck; she is my own old baby-cat, anyway, and I will always take as good care of her as I possibly can."
She would watch Ruth, calmly, while she straightened out whatever she, her own self, had made it necessary to straighten, and, then, when the young woman would, finally, sit down, no matter where Tid-i-wats happened to be located at the time, she would very soon land on Ruth's lap with no fear of a scolding even; she took advantage of the gentle disposition of her care-taker, same as so many humans did. ”

“ Here, as elsewhere, she continues to exhibit her own individual characteristics as her central and almost sole idea is to protect and assist Ruth Wakefield, whom, although she regards her with unlimited respect and is entirely devoted to her interests, she still thinks of as the small child she loved before they landed upon the Island of Cuba; realizing how different she is from those around her, only increases the worship of her faithful attendant, who, on the other hand, does not hesitate to use language that will express what she wishes those whom she is addressing to fully understand. ”

“ From that time on unto the end of earthly life for her, she found sweet satisfaction and content, for she had found a steadfast love to lean upon, a strong and true and virile human being, whose tastes were similar to hers, who loved his native land, America, with all his heart, as she did, too. ”

“ The blood of the sturdy and militant Anglo-Saxon, flowing, now, in Yankee veins, is richer and more life-supporting than it was before the Mayflower landed her precious freight of human strength and more than human aspiration upon Plymouth Rock. ”

“ Ruth herself, was looking forward with bright anticipation to her return to her own beloved home ... dear to her, not only because of its intrinsic attractiveness, but also because of the precious memories it held of her parents whom she constantly mourned for and kept alive within her loving heart; for so it is, as I believe, that those who are beyond the earth yet live among us who are yet in human form; I think that those who are made welcome in the hearts of men and women continue, often, their stay within the circle of humanity ”

“ I trust that those who will be engaged in battle may be prepared to meet their Maker with clean hearts, if with bloody hands. War," she cried, suddenly, losing her attitude of prayer in the violence of her emotions, "war is a terrible calamity but it seems that, only through war can a nation be purged of such foul crimes as have been committed right here in Cuba." ”

“ Walking as erectly as he could under the circumstances and keeping his left wrist well covered by the wide cuff of his jacket-sleeve, he was proceeding along the familiar street, when he met the girl he was in search of, strolling placidly along, little dreaming of the imminent peril in which he had just been placed, for the discharge of the Mauser rifle had been almost as silent as smokeless; telling her in a few hurried sentences of his great need and describing to her the location of the ruined hut he had in mind, Manuello retired from the scene. ”

“ The light of truth and understanding, that is God's Smile, looks up into our faces from the heart of every flower, whether bathed in moonlight, or shining underneath the sun; the simplest soul or the grandest intellect, alike, may bask beneath this light and feel its healing power. ”

“ Tessa was young, but the women of Cuba, like those of most tropical countries, mature early in life, and she already had the strong maternal instinct that is a part of normal womanhood; this instinct now directed her to watch over Manuello as if he were, indeed, her child, instead of the man to whom she had given the first wild love of her fiery nature; for women are made that way ... ”

“ Tid-i-wats endured this, patiently, until he went beyond the common run of prayers for him when they had been together, then she squirmed and twisted in Ruth's arms, and, finally, escaped her altogether; then old Mage corraled her and the two of them had quite a little conversation on the side:
"You naughty little thing! You must behave yourself and be a nice little lady. Can't you see what's happened to us without making us a lot of trouble, too?" ”