The old mother had a dash of dark or
negrine blood in her veins, and this strain came out strongly in the
daughter, a tall woman with lustreless crinkled hair of a wrought-iron
colour, large voluptuous mouth, pale dark skin, and large dark sad
eyes.
I remembered that they had not always been sad, for I had known her in
her full bloom--an imposing woman, her eyes sparkling with intense
fire and passion, who, despite her coarse features and dark skin, had
a kind of strange wild beauty which attracted men. Unhappily she
placed her affections on the wrong person, a dashing young gaucho who,
albeit landless and poor in cattle, made a brave appearance,
especially when mounted and when man and horse glittered with silver
ornaments. I recalled how one of my last sights of her had been on a
Sunday morning in summer when I had ridden to a spot on the plain
where it was overgrown with giant thistles, standing about ten feet
high, in full flower and filling the hot air with their perfume.
There, in a small open grassy space I had dismounted to watch a hawk,
in hopes of finding its nest concealed somewhere among the thistles
close by. And presently two persons came at a swift gallop by the
narrow path through the thistles, and bursting out into that small
open spot I saw that it was Cipriana, in a white dress, on a big bay
horse, and her lover, who was leading the way.
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