"You yourself have freed
me; you yourself have broken the barrier you raised between me and my
betrothed. You cursed her whose lips should next touch mine, and you are
poisoned with your own venom."
He sprang from off the bed, and catching up his _serape_, flung it about
his shoulders.
"Felipe," she cried, "Felipe, where are you going?"
"Back to Buelna," he shouted, and with the words rushed from the room.
Her strength seemed suddenly to leave her. She sank lower to the floor,
burying her face deep upon the pillows that yet retained the impress of
him she loved so deeply, so recklessly.
Footsteps in the passage and a knocking at the door aroused her. A
woman, one of the escort who had accompanied her, entered hurriedly.
"Senorita," cried this one, "your brother, the Senor Unzar, he is
dying."
Rubia hurried to an adjoining room, where upon a mattress on the floor
lay her brother.
"Put that woman out," he gasped as his glance met hers. "I never sent
for her," he went on. "You are no longer sister of mine. It was you who
drove me to this quarrel, and when I have vindicated you what do you do?
Your brother you leave to be tended by hirelings, while all your thought
and care are lavished on your paramour. Go back to him. I know how to
die alone, but as you go remember that in dying I hated and disowned
you."
He fell back upon the pillows, livid, dead.
Rubia started forward with a cry.
Pages:
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186