Coffins For Two by Vincent Starrett

Author:Vincent Starrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

4

Light and variable as are the moods of a mountain bandit, the emotions of Don Ramos the corregidor tormented him for some hours after his conversation with Henriquez. He had entered upon his new life with a desire for peace and quiet, but while early disillusion had embittered him, pride forbade acceptance of the offer held out to him by Henriquez. Something else too throbbed in his heart: was it conscience? He suspected that it was Isabel. Still, the knowledge of failure was not pleasant; and he had failed. Had things been happier, how gladly would he have remained corregidor of Maltrata until his final hour!

And he had principles! Yes, he told himself, he had principles. After all, he had married the Dona Cristina.

“But it is easier to die for one’s convictions,” murmured Ramos, “than to live in conformity with many of them. A man should be a fool only once. When he has committed an error and refuses to admit it, he but perpetuates the error. But when he recognizes it and rectifies his error, then right is restored.”

Greatly cheered by these reflections, the corregidor took himself home to the evening meal, during which he was very absent-minded and drew upon himself the displeasure of his wife.

“Of what are you thinking, Papa?” maliciously inquired his stepdaughter.

“There are certain conditions,” responded Ramos, profoundly, “under which it is more sinful to keep the law than to break it.”

“What a philosopher you are becoming, Papa!”

“He is becoming a greater fool every day,” observed Dona Cristina tartly. “It seems my lot to draw fools; he is my fourth, and I vow he is the most arrant fool of them all.”

“The popularity of the lottery is subsiding,” replied her husband, with surprising courage. “I should not be surprised to hear that it had been declared illegal.”

“And it would not surprise me,” retorted Dona Cristina, “to hear that you had been declared insane. Your conversation is that of an imbecile.”

“You will allow, however, that my conduct has been irreproachable,” ironically said Ramos. “Isabel, I am sure, will be my witness!”

“Or your mistress!” shrieked his wife, with blazing eyes.

“Oh, Mother, not that!” murmured her daughter humorously, and with a silvery laugh left the table.

“Madame,” said the corregidor, politely, “if I have treated you ill, believe me, I am sorry. May I ask whether this insane suspicion of yours is to be nursed indefinitely? It is without foundation in fact, and it begins to tire me.”

“Paugh!” cried Dona Cristina, and her thin nostrils quivered. “Paugh!” she repeated in shrill crescendo.

“Very well,” said Ramos with a sigh, “let it be—Paugh!”

Bowing profoundly to his wife, he followed his stepdaughter from the room, conscious that, after all, it had been the first passage at arms in which he had been in any sense victorious.

“And, after all,” quoth Ramos as he strolled into his garden, “I think I shall return to the mountains. I think I deserve a vacation.”

He flung himself upon a bench, and lighting his pipe gave himself over to furious thought.

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