FELISBERTO HERNANDEZ
397
"Wha t gave you such an idea?"
He was surpri sed she didn 't laugh a t hi s odd tone.
"Oh , come on , darling. .. After a ll , she's like a daughter to us by
now," Mary went on .
He let hi s eyes linger on her face, and with them his thoughts;
go in g over each of her fea tures, as i( revi ewing every detail of a spot
he' d visited da il y through many long h a ppy years. Then he broke away
and went and sa t in the littl e parl or , to think about wha t had just
happened . At (irst, suspecting hi s wife had found him out, he'd felt
certain she' d forg ive him . But then, seeing her smile, he' d realized it
was madness to suppose she could imagine, let alone forgive, such a
sin . Her face was like a peaceful landscape, with a bit of golden evening
g low on o ne o( her cheeks, the other shaded by the small hump of her
nose. He' d thought of all the good left in the innocence o f the wo rld
and the habit of love, and the tenderness with which he always came
back to her face after hi s adventures with the doll s. But in time, when
she di scovered , not onl y the true na ture of his affection for Daisy, but
the length and depth of hi s deceit, her face would co ll apse. She' d never
be a ble to understa nd the sudden evil in the world and in the habit of
love, or fee l an ything but horror a t the sight of him.
So he'd stood there in the yard , gazing at a spo t o( sun on hi s coa t
sleeve. As he' d shifted, the spo t had moved , like a taint, to her dress.
T hen , h eading for the little pa rl or, he' d felt his insides lump and sag,
like dea d weights. Now he sa t on a little stool, thinking he was
unworth y o f being received into the lap of a famil y armchair, and felt
as uncomforta bl e as if he' d sa t on a child. He hardl y recognized himself
and shuddered a t the tho ught of being made of such base metal. But, to
hi s surpri se, a bit la ter, in bed with the covers pulled up to hi s nose, he
went stra ight to sleep.
Mary was on the ph one to Frank , saying:
"Yo u 'd better hurry with Daisy. Horace is worrying himself sick."
Frank sa id:
" I have
to
tell you , Mar y: it's a bad wound, right in the middl e o f
th e circul a tory sys tem. We can 't rush it. But I'll do wha t I can ."
In a whil e, Horace woke up under his pile of covers, blinking
down a kind of slope, and saw a picture of his parents on the far wall.
He felt they' d chea ted him : he was like a trunk full of dirty rags instead
of ri ches; and they were like two thieves who'd fl ed before he grew up
and exposed the fraud . But then he was as hamed of these monstrous
tho ughts.
At dinn er, he tried to be on hi s bes t behavior.
Mar y sa id : " I caNed Frank about hurrying Daisy ."
