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36 R A M O N A
defiantly infamous, that he even flaunted his illegitimate
relations in his wife's presence; subjecting her to gross in-
sults, spite of her helpless invalidism. This last outrage was
too much for the Gonzaga blood to endure; the Senora never
afterward left her apartment, or spoke to her husband. Once
more she sent for her sister to come; this time, to see her
die. Every valuable she possessed, jewels, laces, brocades,
and damasks, she gave into her sister's charge, to save them
from falling into the hands of the base creature that she knew
only too well would stand in her place as soon as the funeral
services had been said over her dead body.
Stealthily, as if she had been a thief, the sorrowing Senora
Moreno conveyed her sister's wardrobe, article by article, out
of the house, to be sent to her own home. It was the ward-
robe of a princess. The Ortegnas lavished money always
on the women whose hearts they broke; and never ceased to
demand of them that they should sit superbly arrayed in
their lonely wretchedness.
One hour after the funeral, with a scant and icy ceremony
of farewell to her dead sister's husband, Senora Moreno,
leading the little four-year-old Ramona by the hand,
left the house, and early the next morning set sail for
home.
When Ortegna discovered that his wife's jewels and valu-
ables of all kinds were gone, he fell into a great rage, and
sent a messenger off, post-haste, with an insulting letter to the
Seiiora Moreno, demanding their return. For answer, he got
a copy of his wife's memoranda of instructions to her sister,
giving all the said valuables to her in trust for Ramona: also
a letter from Father Salvierderra, upon reading which he
sank into a fit of despondency that lasted a day or two,
and gave his infamous associates considerable alarm, lest
they had lost their comrade. But he soon shook olT I he in-
fluence, whatever it was. and settled back into his old gait
on the same old high-road to the devil. Father Salvierderra
could alarm him, but not save him.
And this was the mystery of Ramona. No wondei the
Senora Moreno never told the story. No wonder, perhaps,
that she never loved the child, it was a sad legac)-, indis-