MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

county, and later that of the Mission padre[169-1]—when the secret was out. "I will gifher away," said Enriquez confidently, "it will on the instant propitiate the old fellow whoshall perform the affair and withhold his jaw. A little chin-music from your oncle 'Arryshall finish it! Remain tranquil and forget not a ring! One does not always, in the agonyand dissatisfaction of the moment, a ring remember. I shall bring two in the pocket of mydress."If I did not entirely participate in this roseate view, it may have been because Enriquez,although a few years my senior, was much younger-looking, and with his demure deviltryof eye and his upper lip close shaven for this occasion, he suggested a depraved acolyterather than a responsible member of a family. Consuelo had also confided to me that herfather—possibly owing to some rumors of our previous escapade—had forbidden anyfurther excursions with me alone. The innocent man did not know that Chu Chu hadforbidden it also, and that even on this momentous occasion both Enriquez and myselfwere obliged to ride in opposite fields like out-flankers. But we nevertheless felt the fullguilt of disobedience added to our desperate enterprise. Meanwhile, although pressed fortime and subject to discovery at any moment, I managed at certain points of the road todismount and walk beside Chu Chu (who did not seem to recognize me on foot), holdingConsuelo's hand in my own, with the discreet Enriquez leading my horse in the distantfield. I retain a very vivid picture of that walk—the ascent of a gentle slope towards aprospect as yet unknown but full of glorious possibilities; the tender dropping light of anautumn sky, slightly filmed with the promise of the future rains, like foreshadowed tears,