Mist or Niebla (In Contemporary American English) by de Unamuno Miguel

Author:de Unamuno, Miguel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

18 — About social products

“Hello, Rosarito,” cried Augusto as he entered the room.

“Good evening, Don Augusto.” The girl's voice was calm and serene and no less her demeanor.

“Why didn't you settle with Liduvina, as you have always done before when I was not at home?”

“I don't know! She told me to wait. I thought you wanted to say something to …”

“But — is this simplicity? Or what is it?” thought Augusto, and he paused, wondering what he should say. There was a moment of embarrass­ment filled with uneasy silence.

“What I want you to do, Rosario, is to forget what happened the other day. I don’t want you to think of it again. Do you understand me?”

“Very well, just as you wish …”

“Yes, that was a piece of folly … folly. I hardly knew what I was doing or what I was saying … just as I don’t know now either …” And he began getting closer to the girl.

She awaited him quietly and with an air of resignation. Augusto seated himself on the sofa and called her: “Come here!” He told her to sit on his knee as she had done before, and then for some time he gazed into her eyes. She stood his gaze quite calmly, but her whole body trembled like an aspenleaf.

“You're shivering, child …?”

“I? Not me. It seems to be you …”

“You mustn’t tremble. Be still …”

“Don’t make me cry again …”

“Ah, yes, really you want me to make you cry again. Tell me, have you a boyfriend?”

“But what a question…”

“Tell me, have you?”

“A boyfriend … well, not a regular one … no!”

“But hasn’t any young fellow of your own age ever shown you any attention?”

“But you see, Don Augusto …”

“And what did you say to him?”

“There are some things that you don’t talk about …”

“That’s true. But come, tell me, do you love each other?”

“My God, Don Augusto! …”

“Listen, if you are going to cry I shall leave you.”

The girl bent over and hid her head on Augusto’s chest, and in the effort to keep herself from sobbing she burst into tears. “This child is going to faint on me,” thought Augusto as he stroked her hair.

“Come, calm down! Calm yourself!”

“And that other woman? …” asked Rosarito without raising her head, as she choked down her sobs.

“Ah, you haven’t forgotten her? Well, the other woman has ended rejecting me for good. I had never really won her, but now I have lost her … lost her for good—for good!”

The girl raised her head and looked him sharply in the eyes, as if seeking to see if he were speaking the truth.

“You want to fool me …” she whispered.

“Why should I want to fool you? Ah, yes, I see, I see now! And so that’s what’s the matter, is it? But didn’t you say that you had a lover?”

“I didn’t say anything at all …”

“Take it easy!” And placing her beside him on the sofa he rose and began to pace the floor.

But as he turned his gaze in her direction he saw that the poor girl had changed color and was trembling.

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