It is a part of the faithfulness of Isaac’s transcript of life in provincial Colombia that he uses many words which are Cauca localisms. Several of these have been left untranslated, as having no equi...

I was still a mere boy when sent away from home to study in ⸻ College, founded a few years before in Bogotá, and then well known all through Colombia. The night before my departure, after the family g...

After six years, the last days of a splendid August saw me returning to my native valley. My heart was overflowing with love of home. It was the last day of my journey, and I was enjoying the most cha...

At eight we went to the dining-room, which had a most attractive eastern exposure. From it could be seen the naked summits of the mountains against the starry background of the sky. The desert breeze ...

I slept as I used to when a child, after being lulled to slumber by a fairy story told me by the slave Pedro. I dreamed that María came in to renew the flowers on my table, and that when she went out ...

After three days had passed, my father asked me to go with him to inspect his ranches in the valley. My mother insisted strongly that we should return soon. María did not ask, as did my sisters, that ...

What had María been thinking of in those four days? She was just placing a lamp on one of the tables in the parlor when I went up to greet her; I had wondered at not finding her in the family group th...

At the time of my father’s last voyage to the Antilles his cousin Salomón, his dear friend from childhood, had just lost his wife. They had come to South America together when still young; and, in one...

Early in the evening Emma knocked at my door to summon me to the table. I bathed my face to hide the traces of tears, and changed my clothes to give color to my delay. María was not in the dining-room...

I rose the next morning at daybreak. The flush that was outlining in the east the peaks of the central Cordillera was gilding a few light clouds that hung round the mountains, and that now began to se...

As I was slowly returning, the image of María again came into my mind. Those lonely spots⁠—the silent forests, the flowers, birds, brooks⁠—why did they remind me of her? What suggestion of María was t...

I was unnaturally gay the rest of the day. At the table I talked enthusiastically of the beautiful women of Bogotá, and especially recounted the graces and wit of P⁠⸺. My father seemed pleased to hear...

The moon had just risen, full and clear in the deep sky above the darkened mountains. It lighted up the ridges, whitened here and there by the tops of the yarumos, silvered the foam on the cataracts, ...

One afternoon, as I came down from the mountain, I observed signs of excitement on the faces of the servants whom I met in the corridors. My sister told me that María had suffered a nervous shock, and...

When I went out into the corridor leading to my room a strong north wind was swaying the willows in the courtyard; and I could hear it sweeping through the orange groves in the garden, blowing the fri...

In the afternoon of the same day, the doctor took his leave of us, after having left María almost completely recovered, and prescribed a treatment to prevent a repetition of the attack. I felt an unsp...

Ten days had passed since that painful interview; not trusting myself to adopt the bearing with María which my father desired, and sorrowfully reflecting on the proposal of marriage made for Carlos, I...

I was all ready to set out when Emma came to my room. She was surprised to find me in a happy mood. “Where are you going in such a good humor?” she asked. “Would that I did not have to go anywhere! Wh...

Emigdio was a good boy. A year before my return to Cauca his father had sent him to Bogotá, with the purpose of putting him, as the excellent man said, in the way of becoming a merchant and man of aff...

My mother and Emma came out to the corridor to welcome me. My father had mounted his horse and gone to oversee the farm-work. Very soon they called me to the dining-room, and I promptly went there bec...

The following morning at daybreak I took the mountain road, accompanied by Juan Ángel, who was loaded down with presents sent by my mother to Luisa and the girls. Mayo followed us; his faithfulness wa...

The urgent invitation of the mountaineers induced me to stay with them till four in the afternoon, and then, after prolonged goodbyes, I started home in company with Braulio, who insisted upon going w...

Carlos and I passed into the dining-room. The seats were arranged as follows: my father was at the head of the table; at his left my mother had just sat down; on his right was Don Jerónimo, who unfold...

Bedtime came, and I sought my room, hoping that a bed had not been placed there for Carlos, too. My mother and María were just coming out. “I can sleep here alone, can’t I?” I asked the former. She un...

I was awakened in the morning by the whispering of the children, who in vain tried to respect my sleep. The doves which had been recently caught, and, with clipped wings, kept in empty boxes, cooed as...

My mother was told of our plan of hunting, and had an early breakfast served for Carlos, Braulio, and me. It was all I could do to persuade the mountaineer to sit down at the table; he placed himself ...

Up to that time, I had succeeded in preventing Carlos from taking me into his confidence about the proposal which, in an evil hour for him, had brought him to our house. But as soon as we were alone i...

That afternoon, before the ladies went out to make coffee, as they always did when there were guests in the house, I turned the conversation to the boys’ fishing, and told why I had promised to witnes...

The arrival of the mails, and the visit of the M⁠⸺⁠s, had accumulated a great deal to do in my father’s study. We worked steadily all the next day, but when we were with the family in the dining-room,...

The next morning my father dictated, and I wrote, while he was shaving. His curling hair, still abundant on the back part of his head, seemed to him a little too long. Opening the door into the corrid...

It must have been eleven. Through with the work, I was leaning my elbows on the windowsill in my room. Those moments of self-forgetfulness when my thought soared through regions almost unknown to me; ...

The next day I had to exert myself not to let my father see how disagreeable it was for me to have to go with him to his farms in the valley. As was his custom whenever he was about to undertake a jou...

The suns of seven days had beaten upon us, and we had worked up to late hours of the nights. On the last, my father was lying on his bed, dictating, while I was writing. The parlor clock struck ten; I...

Not all those expecting us were in the corridor. María was standing a few rods from the courtyard gate, upon one of the large rocks to our left which commanded the valley. Emma was urging her to come ...

The next day, the 12th of December, was to be Tránsito’s wedding-day. After our return, word was sent to José that we would be in the parish church between seven and eight. It had been decided that my...

As we reached home, I was astonished to see the shutters closed in the windows of my mother’s room. Eloisa ran out to us making signs that we should be quiet. “Papa,” she said, “has gone to lie down b...

Ten days passed. Joy returned to our home; for my father, after a critical illness, was convalescent. The doctor advised us to keep him as free as possible from all care. So we studiously avoided spea...

At eight the bell rang for dinner; but I felt that I could not yet control myself in María’s presence. My mother knocked at my door. “Is it possible,” she said, when she had entered, “that you are goi...

When I reached the farms the next morning, I found there the doctor who had taken Mayn’s place in treating Feliciana. He told me that he had lost all hope of curing her, and said that a priest ought t...

Despite what had happened the evening before my departure for the valley, María was just the same in her treatment of me as she had been before. The same chaste mystery still enveloped our love. We th...

I came down the mountain the next day at noon. Directly overhead was the sun, unshaded by a single cloud, and pouring its intense light on everything not sheltered from its fiery rays by the foliage o...

My father had determined to go to the city before my departure, not only because his business urgently demanded it, but also because he wished to make some arrangements there about my journey. On the ...

At seven the next morning my father’s luggage was already out of the house, and he and I were taking our coffee, dressed for the road. I was to go with him as far as the M⁠⸺’s farm, to say goodbye to ...

We were going out of the courtyard behind the kitchen when Candelaria called after us, “You must not be long, for the dinner will be ready in a minute.” Salome was going to shut the little cross-barre...

The parlor clock was striking five. My mother and Emma were waiting for me in the corridor. María was seated on the bottom steps of the staircase. She wore that green dress which contrasted so beautif...

On the 28th of January, two days before my journey, I went up the mountain very early. José and the girls had sent Braulio to bring me. They wanted me to say goodbye to them in their own house. When w...

I went down slowly towards the bottom of the mountain gorge. Only the distant cry of the gurríes and the murmur of the river disturbed the silence of the woods. My heart was saying farewell to each sp...

At eleven o’clock in the evening of the twenty-ninth I took leave of the family and María in the parlor. I sat up in my room until I heard the clock strike one⁠—the first hour of the dreaded day at la...

I had been two weeks in London, when one night I received letters from home. With trembling hand I opened the package. There was a letter from María. Before unfolding it, I sought for traces of her pe...

For a whole year I had letters from María twice a month. The last ones were filled with a melancholy so profound that the earlier ones seemed as if written in our days of undisturbed happiness. I had ...

The sun of the 25th of July was setting in the misty horizon of the sea, filling the western sky with gleaming ruby and gold. The level rays pursued the blue waves, that ran as fugitives to hide benea...

My good friend knocked at my door at four. I had been waiting for him an hour, all ready to set out. He, Lorenzo, and I took coffee while the boatmen were carrying my luggage to the canoes, and soon a...

Lorenzo called me very early. It was three by my watch. Owing to the moon, the night seemed only a dull day. We set out at four, Bibiano and his daughter commending us to the care of the Virgin. It se...

As we sat down at the table I told D⁠⸺ that I wished to continue the journey the same afternoon, if it was possible. I besought him to overcome the difficulties in the way of that plan. He consulted w...

At four of the next afternoon I reached the summit of the Cruces. There I dismounted to tread again the soil whence I had said farewell to my native country. Again I saw the valley of Cauca, a land as...

I could not tell what had happened, when I awoke one night on a bed surrounded by objects and persons that I could scarcely distinguish. A shaded lamp, whose light made the curtains of my bed the more...

Two months had passed over her grave, and my lips had not murmured a prayer over her. I still felt myself too weak to visit the abandoned house where we had loved each other, or to gaze upon that tomb...

On the loth of September, two months after María’s death, I had from Emma the last of that story which she had kept from giving me as long as possible. It was in the evening, and Juan was asleep upon ...

Never to be forgotten is that last night passed in the home where I spent the years of my childhood and the happy days of my youth. As a bird driven by the hurricane out upon the parched plains tries ...

That afternoon I set out on my return to the city, intending to pass by the cemetery where was María’s grave. Juan Ángel and Braulio had gone on ahead to wait for me there, and José, his wife, and his...