The hall was long and broad. At one end of it was the door of the room occupied by the engineer, in the centre that of the dining-room, and at the other end were the staircase and a large closed door reached by a step. This door opened into a chapel in which the Polentinos performed their domestic devotions. Occasionally the holy sacrifice of the mass was celebrated in it.
Rosario led her cousin to the door of the chapel and then sank down on the doorstep.
"Here?" murmured Pepe Rey.
From the movements of Rosarito's right hand he comprehended that she was blessing herself.
"Rosario, dear cousin, thanks for allowing me to see you!" he exclaimed, embracing her ardently.
He felt the girl's cold fingers on his lips, imposing silence. He kissed them rapturously.
"You are frozen. Rosario, why do you tremble so?"
Her teeth were chattering, and her whole frame trembled convulsively.
Rey felt the burning heat of his cousin's face against his own, and he cried in alarm:
"Your forehead is burning! You are feverish."
"Very."
"Are you really ill?"
"Yes."
"And you have left your room----"
"To see you."
The engineer wrapped his arms around her to protect her from the cold, but it was not enough.
"Wait," he said quickly, rising. "I am going to my room to bring my travelling rug."
"Put out the light, Pepe."
Rey had left the lamp burning in his room, through the door of which issued a faint streak of light, illuminating the hall. He returned in an instant. The darkness was now profound. Groping his way along the wall he reached the spot where his cousin was sitting, and wrapped the rug carefully around her.
"You are comfortable now, my child."
"Yes, so comfortable! With you!"
"With me--and forever!" exclaimed the young man, with exaltation.
But he observed that she was releasing herself from his arms and was rising.
"What are you doing?"
A metallic sound was heard. Rosario had put the key into the invisible lock and was cautiously opening the door on the threshold of which they had been sitting. The faint odor of dampness, peculiar to rooms that have been long shut up, issued from the place, which was as dark as a tomb. Pepe Rey felt himself being guided by the hand, and his cousin's voice said faintly:
"Enter!"
They took a few steps forward. He imagined himself being led to an unknown Elysium by the angel of night. Rosario groped her way. At last her sweet voice sounded again, murmuring:
"Sit down."
They were beside a wooden bench. Both sat down. Pepe Rey embraced Rosario again. As he did so, his head struck against a hard body.
"What is this?" he asked.
"The feet."
"Rosario--what are you saying?"
"The feet of the Divine Jesus, of the image of Christ crucified, that we adore in my house."
Pepe Rey felt a cold chill strike through him.
"Kiss them," said the young girl imperiously.
The mathematician kissed the cold feet of the holy image.
"Pepe," then cried the young girl, pressing her cousin's hand ardently between her own, "do you believe in God?"
"Rosario! What are you saying? What absurdities are you imagining?" responded her cousin, perplexed.
"Answer me."
Pepe Rey felt drops of moisture on his hands.
"Why are you crying?" he said, greatly disturbed. "Rosario, you are killing me with your absurd doubts. Do I believe in God? Do you doubt it?"
"I do not doubt it; but they all say that you are an atheist."
"You would suffer in my estimation, you would lose your aureole of purity--your charm--if you gave credit to such nonsense."
"When I heard them accuse you of being an atheist, although I could bring no proof to the contrary, I protested from the depths of my soul against such a calumny. You cannot be an atheist. I have within me as strong and deep a conviction of your faith as of my own."
"How wisely you speak! Why, then, do you ask me if I believe in God?"
"Because I wanted to hear it from your own lips, and rejoice in hearing you say it. It is so long since I have heard the sound of your voice!
What greater happiness than to hear it again, saying: 'I believe in God?' "
"Rosario, even the wicked believe in him. If there be atheists, which I doubt, they are the calumniators, the intriguers with whom the world is infested. For my part, intrigues and calumnies matter little to me; and if you rise superior to them and close your heart against the discord which a perfidious hand would sow in it, nothing shall interfere with our happiness."
"But what is going on around us? Pepe, dear Pepe, do you believe in the devil?"
The engineer was silent. The darkness of the chapel prevented Rosario from seeing the smile with which her cousin received this strange question.
"We must believe in him," he said at last.
"What is going on? Mamma forbids me to see you; but, except in regard to the atheism, she does not say any thing against you. She tells me to wait, that you will decide; that you are going away, that you are coming back---- Speak to me with frankness--have you formed a bad opinion of my mother?"
"Not at all," replied Rey, urged by a feeling of delicacy.
"Do you not believe, as I do, that she loves us both, that she desires only our good, and that we shall in the end obtain her consent to our wishes?"
"If you believe it, I do too. Your mama adores us both. But, dear Rosario, it must be confessed that the devil has entered this house."
"Don't jest!" she said affectionately. "Ah! Mamma is very good. She has not once said to me that you were unworthy to be my husband. All she insists upon is the atheism. They say, besides, that I have manias, and that I have the mania now of loving you with all my soul. In our family it is a rule not to oppose directly the manias that are hereditary in it, because to oppose them aggravates them."
"Well, I believe that there are skilful physicians at your side who have determined to cure you, and who will, in the end, my adored girl, succeed in doing so."
