Title:  The Doomswoman An Historical Romance of Old California

Author:  Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

Release Date:  May 5, 2004 [EBook #12270]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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[Illustration:  Gertrude Atherton photographed by Mrs. Lounsbery]

THE DOOMSWOMAN

An Historical Romance of Old California

By

Gertrude Atherton

[Illustration]

1900

To

STEPHEN FRANKLIN

THE DOOMSWOMAN.

I.

It was at Governor Alvarado’s house in Monterey that Chonita first knew of Diego Estenega.  I had told him much of her, but had never cared to mention the name of Estenega in the presence of an Iturbi y Moncada.

Chonita came to Monterey to stand godmother to the child of Alvarado and of her friend Dona Martina, his wife.  She arrived the morning before the christening, and no one thought to tell her that Estenega was to be godfather.  The house was full of girls, relatives of the young mother, gathered for the ceremony and subsequent week of festivities.  Benicia, my little one, was at the rancho with Ysabel Herrera, and I was staying with the Alvarados.  So many were the guests that Chonita and I slept together.  We had not seen each other for a year, and had so much to say that we did not sleep at all.  She was ten years younger than I, but we were as close friends as she with her alternate frankness and reserve would permit.  But I had spent several months of each year since childhood at her home in Santa Barbara, and I knew her better than she knew herself; when, later, I read her journal, I found little in it to surprise me, but much to fill and cover with shapely form the skeleton of the story which passed in greater part before my eyes.

We were discussing the frivolous mysteries of dress, if I remember aright, when she laid her hand on my mouth suddenly.

“Hush!” she said.

A caballero serenaded his lady at midnight in Monterey.

The tinkle of a guitar, the jingling of spurs, fell among the strong tones of a man’s voice.

Chonita had been serenaded until she had fled to the mountains for sleep, but she crept to the foot of the bed and knelt there, her hand at her throat.  A door opened, and, one by one, out of the black beyond, five white-robed forms flitted into the room.  They looked like puffs of smoke from a burning moon.  The heavy wooden shutters were open, and the room was filled with cold light.