Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

THE FAIR CUBAN. 149
left undone can ne\er be repaired, and I must bear the
penalty of my remorse. But, Teresa, witli so cutting a
reminder of the evils of delay, I set myself at once to do
what was still possible : to liberate yourself.'
I began to break forth in thanks, but he checked me
with a sombre roughness.
' Your mother's illness,' he resumed, ' had engaged
too great a portion of my time ; my business in the city
had lain too long at the mercy of ignorant underlings ;
my head, my taste, my unequalled knowledge of the
more precious stones, that art by which I can distin-
guish, even on the darkest night, a sapphire from a ruby
and tell at a glance in what quarter of the earth a gem
was disinterred — all these had been too long absent from
the conduct of affairs. Teresa, I was insolvent.'
' AYhat matters that ? ' I cried. ' What matters
poverty, if we be left together with our love and sacred
memories 1 '
' You do not comprehend,' he said gloomily. ' Slave,
as you are, young — alas ! scarce more than child ! —
accomplished, beautiful with the most touching beauty,
innocent as an angel — all these qualities that should dis-
arm the very wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyes of
those to whom I stand indebted, commodities to buy and
sell. You are a chattel ; a marketable thing ; and worth
— heavens, that I should say such words ! — worth money.
Do you begin to see ? If I were to give you freedom, I
should defraud my creditors ; the manumission would be
certainly annulled ; you would be still a slave, and I a
criminal.'
I caught his hand in mine, kissed it, and moaned in
pity for myself, in sympathy for my father.
' How I have toiled,' he continued, ' how I have
dared and striven to repair my losses. Heaven has beheld
and will remember. Its blessing was denied to my
endeavours, or, as I please myself by thinking, but
delayed to descend upon my daughter's head. At length,
all hope was at an end; I was ruined beyond retrieve; a
heavy debt fell due upon the morrow, which I could not
meet ; I should be declared a bankrupt, and my goods,