CHAPTER XXI
DONA CONSOLACION.
Why were the windows in the alferez's house closed? Where wasthe masculine face and the flannel shirt of the Medusa or Muse ofthe Civil Guard while the procession was passing? Could she haveunderstood how unpleasant was the sight of the swelling veins ofher forehead, filled, it seemed, not with blood but with vinegarand bile; of her large cigar, that worthy ornament of her red lips;and of her envious look; could she have understood all of that, and,giving way to a generous impulse, have refrained from disturbing thegayety of the crowd by her sinister apparition?
Alas! Her generous impulses lived only in the golden age.
Her house was sad because other people were merry, as Sinang putit. There neither lanterns nor flags could be seen. In fact, if thesentry were not walking up and down in front of the gate, you wouldhave said that the house was unoccupied.
A feeble light illumined the disarranged sala, and made transparentthe oyster-shell windows filled with spider-webs and covered withdust. The Senora, according to her custom, her hands folded, sat ina wide arm-chair. She was dressed the same as every day, that is tosay, outrageously out of taste. In detail, she had a handkerchieftied around her head, while short, slender locks of tangled hairhung down on either side; a blue flannel shirt over another shirtwhich should have been white; and a faded-out skirt which mouldeditself to her slender thighs as she sat with her legs crossed andnervously wiggled her foot. From her mouth, came big puffs of smoke,which she fastidiously blew up in the space toward which she lookedwhen her eyes were open.
That morning the Senora had not heard mass, not because she had notcared to hear it, for on the contrary she wanted to show herself tothe multitude and to hear the sermon, but because her husband had notpermitted her to do so. As was usually the case, his prohibition wasaccompanied by two or three insults, oaths and threats of kicking. Thealferez understood that his "female" dressed herself in a ridiculousmanner, and that it was not fitting to expose her to the eyes of thepeople from the capital nor even the country districts.
But she did not understand it that way. She knew that she wasbeautiful, attractive, that she had the manners of a queen and thatshe dressed much better and more gorgeously than Maria Clara herself,though to be sure the latter wore a tapis over her skirt while shewore only the skirt. The alferez had to say to her: "Oh, shut yourmouth or I'll kick you till you do!"
Dona Consolacion did not care to be kicked, but she planned revenge.
The dark face of the Senora never had inspired confidence in anybody,not even when she painted it. That morning she was exceptionallyuneasy, and as she walked from one end of the sala to the other, insilence and as if meditating something terrible, her eyes shone likethose of a serpent about to be crushed. Her look was cold, luminous,and penetrating and had something vicious, loathsome and cruel in it.
The slightest defect in anything, the most insignificant or unusualnoise brought forth an obscene and infamous expression; but no oneresponded. To offer an excuse was a crime.
So the day passed. Encountering no obstacle in her way--her husbandhad been invited out--she became saturated with bile.
Everything around bent itself before her. She met no resistance,there was nothing upon which she could discharge the vials of herwrath. Soldiers and servants crawled before her.
That she might not hear the rejoicing going on outside, she orderedthe windows to be closed, and charged the sentry not to permit anyone to enter. She tied a handkerchief around her head to preventit from bursting; and, in spite of the fact that the sun was stillshining brightly, she ordered the lamps lighted.
A madwoman who had been detained for disturbing the public peace wastaken to the barracks. The alferez was not there at the time and theunhappy woman had to pass the night seated on a bench. The followingday the alferez returned. Fearing lest the unhappy woman should becomethe butt of the crowd during the fiesta, he ordered the soldiers whowere guarding her to treat her with pity and give her something toeat. Thus the demented woman passed two days.
Whether the proximity to Captain Tiago's house made it possible forthe sad song of Maria Clara to reach her ears, whether other strainsof music awoke in her memories of old songs, or whether there wassome other cause for it, at any rate, the madwoman began that nightto sing with a sweet and melancholy voice the songs of her youth. Thesoldiers heard her and kept silent. Those songs brought back memoriesof the old times.
Dona Consolacion also heard it in her sorrow, and became interestedin the person who was singing.
"Tell her to come upstairs at once!" she ordered, after some secondsof meditation. Something like a smile passed over her dry lips.
They brought the woman and she presented herself without anydiscomposure, and without manifesting either fear or surprise.
"Orderly, tell this woman in Tagalog to sing!" said the alfereza. "Shedon't understand me; she does not know Spanish."
The demented woman understood the orderly and sang the song "Night."
Dona Consolacion listened to the beginning with a mocking smile whichdisappeared gradually from her lips. She became attentive, thenmore serious and pensive. The woman's voice, the sentiment of theverses and the song itself impressed her. That dry and burning heartwas perhaps softened. She understood the song well: "Sadness, cold,and dampness, wrapped in the mantle of Night descend from the sky,"as the folk song puts it. It seemed that they were also descendingupon her heart. "The withered flower which during the day has paradedits dress, desirous of applause and full of vanity, at nightfallrepenting, makes an effort to raise its faded petals to the sky, andbegs for a little shade in which to hide itself, so as to die withoutthe mockery of the light which saw it in its pomp, to die withoutthe vanity of its pride being seen, and begging for a drop of dew,to weep over it. The night bird, leaving its solitary retreat in thehollow of the old tree, disturbs the melancholy of the forests...."
"No, no! Do not sing!" exclaimed the alfereza in perfect Tagalogand raising to her feet somewhat agitated. "Don't sing! Those verseshurt me!"
The demented woman stopped. The orderly muttered "Bah!" and exclaimed"She knows how to pata Tagalog!" and stood looking at the senora fullof surprise.
The Muse understood that she had been caught, and was ashamed. Asher nature was not that of a woman, her shame took the form of rageand hatred. She pointed out the door to the impudent orderly and witha kick closed it behind him. She took several turns about the room,twisting a whip between her nervous hands, and then, stopping suddenlyin front of the demented woman, said in Spanish: "Dance!"
The demented one did not move.
"Dance! Dance!" she repeated in a threatening voice.
The poor woman looked at the Senora, her eyes devoid of expression. Thealfereza raised one arm and then the other, shaking them in amenacing way.
She then leaped up in the air, and jumped around urging the other womanto imitate her. The band in the procession could be heard playinga slow, majestic march, but the Senora, leaping about furiouslywas keeping time to different music than that the band was playing,that music which resounded within her. A curious look appeared in themadwoman's eyes, and a weak smile moved her pale lips. She liked theSenora's dancing.
The alfereza stopped dancing as if ashamed. She raised the whip,that terrible whip made in Ulango and improved by the alferez bywinding wire around it, that same terrible whip which the ladronesand soldiers knew so well.
"Now it is your turn to dance ... dance!"
And she began to whip lightly the demented woman's bare feet.
The pale face contracted with pain, and she was obliged to defendherself from the blows by her hands.
"Come! Go ahead!" she exclaimed with savage delight, and she passedfrom lento to allegro-vivace in the use of her whip.
The unhappy woman screamed and quickly raised her feet.
"You have got to dance, you d----d Indian!" exclaimed the Senora andthe whip whizzed and whistled.
The woman let herself sink
to the floor and tried to cover herlegs with her hands, at the same time looking with wild eyes at hertormentor. Two heavy lashes on her back made her rise again. Now it wasno longer a scream; it was a howl which escaped from the unfortunatewoman. The thin shirt was torn, the skin broke open and the bloodoozed out.
The sight of blood excites a tiger; so, too, the sight of the bloodof her victim infuriated Dona Consolacion.
"Dance! dance! Curse you! D----n you! Dance! Cursed be the motherwho bore you!" she cried. "Dance, or I'll kill you by whipping youto death!"
Then the alfereza, taking the woman with one hand and whipping herwith another, began to jump and dance.
The insane woman understood her at last and went on moving her armsregardless of time or tune. A smile of satisfaction contracted thelips of the teacher. It was like the smile of a female Mephistopheleswho had succeeded in developing a good pupil; it was full of hatred,contempt, mockery and cruelty; a coarse laugh could not have expressedmore.
Absorbed in the enjoyment which the spectacle afforded her, she didnot hear her husband coming, until he opened the door with a kick.
The alferez appeared, pale and gloomy. He saw what was going on thereand looked daggers at his wife. She did not move from her tracks andstood smiling in a cynical way.
In the gentlest manner possible, he put his hand on the shoulder ofthe dancing woman and made her stop. The demented woman sighed andslowly sat down on the blood-covered floor.
The silence continued. The alferez was breathing heavily. His wifewas observing him with her questioning eyes. She seized the whipand in a calm and measured tone asked him: "What's the matter withyou? You have not said 'good evening' to me."
The alferez, without replying, called the orderly.
"Take this woman," he said, "and have Marta give her another shirtand take care of her. Find her good food, and a good bed.... Let himlook out who treats her badly!"
After carefully closing the door, he turned the key in the lock andapproached his senora.
"You want me to smash you?" he said, clenching his fists.
"What's the matter with you?" asked she, retreating a step or two.
"What's the matter with me?" he shouted, in a thundering voice, and,giving vent to an oath, showed her a paper covered with scribbling. Hecontinued:
"Didn't you write this letter to the Alcalde, saying that I am paidfor permitting the gambling, d----n you? I don't know how I can keepfrom smashing you."
"Go ahead! Try it if you dare!" said she, with a mocking smile. "Hewho smashes me has got to be more of a man than you!"
He heard the insult, but he saw the whip. He seized one of the plateswhich were on the table and threw it at her head. The woman, accustomedto these fights, ducked quickly and the plate was shivered to piecesagainst the wall. A glass, a cup, and a knife shared the same fortune.
"Coward!" she cried. "You dare not come near me!"
And then she spat at him to exasperate him more. The man, blind andhowling with rage, threw himself on her, but she, with wonderfulrapidity, struck him a few blows across the face with the whip, andquickly escaped. Closing the door of her room with a slam, she lockedherself in. Roaring with rage and pain the alferez followed her, but,coming up against the door, he could do nothing but belch forth astring of blasphemies.
"Cursed be your ancestors, you swine! Open, d----n you! Open that dooror I'll break your skull!" he howled, pounding and kicking the panels.
Dona Consolacion did not reply. A moving of chairs and trunks couldbe heard, as though some one was trying to raise a barricade ofhousehold furniture. The house fairly shook with the oaths and kicksof the husband.
"Don't you come in! Don't you come in!" she said, in a bittervoice. "If you show yourself, I'll shoot you!"
The husband calmed down, little by little, and contented himself withpacing from one end of the sala to the other like a wild animal inits cage.
"Go and cool your head!" continued the woman in mockery. She seemedto have concluded her preparations for defense.
"I swear that when I catch you, no one--not even God--will see youagain! I'll smash you so fine."
"Yes! Now you can say what you wish. You would not let me go tomass. You would not let me fulfill my duty to God!" she said withsuch sarcasm as she alone knew how to use.
The alferez took his helmet, straightened out his clothes, and walkedaway several paces. But, at the end of several minutes, he returnedwithout making the slightest noise, for he had taken off his boots. Theservants, accustomed to these spectacles, paid no attention to them,but the novelty of this move with the boots attracted their noticeand they gave each other the wink.
The alferez sat down on a chair next to the door and had the patienceto wait more than half an hour.
"Have you really gone out or are you there, you he-goat?" asked avoice from time to time, changing the epithets but raising the tone.
Finally, she commenced to take away the furniture from herbarricade. He heard the noise and smiled.
"Orderly! Has the senor gone out?" cried Dona Consolacion.
The orderly at a signal from the alferez, replied: "Yes, senora,he has gone out!"
He could hear her laugh triumphantly. She drew back the bolt. Thehusband arose to his feet slowly; the door was opened.
A cry, the noise of a body falling, oaths, howling, swearing, blows,hoarse voices. Who can describe what took place in the darkness ofthe bedroom?
The orderly, going out to the kitchen, made a very expressive gestureto the cook.
"And now you'll catch it!" said the latter.
"I? No, sir. The town will, not I. She asked me if he had gone out,not if he had returned."