with Mrs. Tellamantez for putting up with him. She ought to discipline
him, people said; she ought to leave him; she had no self-respect. In
short, Mrs. Tellamantez got all the blame. Even Thea thought she was
much too humble. To-night, as she sat with her back to the moon, looking
at the moon flowers and Mrs. Tellamantez’s somber face, she was thinking
that there is nothing so sad in the world as that kind of patience and
resignation. It was much worse than Johnny’s craziness. She even
wondered whether it did not help to make Johnny crazy. People had no
right to be so passive and resigned. She would like to roll over and
over in the sand and screech at Mrs. Tellamantez. She was glad when the
doctor came out.
The Mexican woman rose and stood respectful and expectant. The doctor
held his hat in his hand and looked kindly at her.
“Same old thing, Mrs. Tellamantez. He’s no worse than he’s been before.
I’ve left some medicine. Don’t give him anything but toast water until I
see him again. You’re a good nurse; you’ll get him out.” Dr. Archie
smiled encouragingly. He glanced about the little garden and wrinkled
his brows. “I can’t see what makes him behave so. He’s killing himself,
and he’s not a rowdy sort of fellow. Can’t you tie him up someway? Can’t
you tell when these fits are coming on?”
Mrs. Tellamantez put her hand to her forehead. “The saloon, doctor, the
excitement; that is what makes him. People listen to him, and it excites
him.”
The doctor shook his head. “Maybe. He’s too much for my calculations. I
don’t see what he gets out of it.”
“He is always fooled,”—the Mexican woman spoke rapidly and tremulously,
her long under lip quivering.
“He is good at heart, but he has no head. He fools himself. You do not
understand in this country, you are progressive. But he has no judgment,
and he is fooled.” She stooped quickly, took up one of the white
conch-shells that bordered the walk, and, with an apologetic inclination
of her head, held it to Dr. Archie’s ear. “Listen, doctor. You hear
something in there? You hear the sea; and yet the sea is very far from
here. You have judgment, and you know that. But he is fooled. To him, it
is the sea itself. A little thing is big to him.” She bent and placed
the shell in the white row, with its fellows. Thea took it up softly and
pressed it to her own ear. The sound in it startled her; it was like
something calling one. So that was why Johnny ran away. There was
something awe-inspiring about Mrs. Tellamantez and her shell.
Thea caught Dr. Archie’s hand and squeezed it hard as she skipped along
beside him back toward Moonstone. She went home, and the doctor went
back to his lamp and his book. He never left his office until after
midnight. If he did not play whist or pool in the evening, he read. It
had become a habit with him to lose himself.
VII
Thea’s twelfth birthday had passed a few weeks before her memorable call
upon Mrs. Tellamantez. There was a worthy man in Moonstone who was
already planning to marry Thea as soon as she should be old enough. His
name was Ray Kennedy, his age was thirty, and he was conductor on a
