The
youth's handsome, reckless countenance would shine out, smiling, in his
memory, and he repeated Auber's old remark, "Is it the good Lord, or is
it merely the devil, that always makes me have a weakness for rascals?"
Sail away on the barkentine! Imagine taking leave of the people here--of
Felipe! In what words should he tell the boy to go on industriously with
his music? No, this was not imaginable! The mere parting alone would make
it for ever impossible to think of such a thing. "And then," he said to
himself each new morning, when he looked out at the ocean, "I have given
to them my life. One does not take back a gift."
Pictures of his departure began to shine and melt in his drifting fancy.
He saw himself explaining to Felipe that now his presence was wanted
elsewhere; that than would come a successor to take care of Santa Ysabel-
-a younger man, more useful, and able to visit sick people at a distance.
"For I am old now. I should not be long has in any case." He stopped and
pressed his hands together; he had caught his Temptation in the very act.
Now he sat staring at his Temptation's face, close to him, while then in
the triangle two ships went sailing by.
One morning Felipe told him that the barkentine was here on its return
voyage south.
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