Raquel stared at her, but did not speak. Her eyes looked a bit frightened, but she rested her cheek on the frail old hands, and caressed them reassuringly.
Doña Luisa lifted the gold and ebony crucifix, and held it above her head.
"Kneel!" she said; and the girls and women did so. Bryton, in the doorway, caught sight of the girl in the bride's veil, and made a movement toward her, but was checked by the voice of the mother.
"It is for the soul of the man you love, Raquel mia. Never forget that--never forget!"
"I will not forget," said the girl, gently; and at the sound of the voice Keith Bryton's jaw set in a tense, ugly way, and he stepped back into the shadow.
"Then swear by the Holy Mother of God!" said the old voice, and the crucifix above the head of the kneeling girl was held rigidly steady.
"Swear by the blood of Christ crucified!"
"I swear by the blood of Christ crucified!"
"To stand as a guard over the soul of Rafael!" The old voice had a faintness, despite the steady words; the end of her strength had come.
The eyes of Raquel widened ever so little as she realized what she was promising. There was an involuntary pause before she spoke again, and then the absolute despair of the mother, and her one hope, swept over the girl's consciousness, and a spark of the martyr fire lit her own soul.
"To stand as guard over the soul of Rafael," said she, steadily.
Then the crucifix fell to the tiled floor, and the old face looked very gray, as she sank back on the chair; and Jacoba smothered a shriek at sight of her eyes; and Raquel, still on her knees, clasped her about the waist and whispered:
The staring eyes regained a momentary glimmer of consciousness at the sound of the girl's voice, and she lifted her hand again as though it still held the crucifix.
"Until--the day--of--" and then the sentence trailed along into the eternal silences of the unseen land.
"Señora!" called Raquel, appealingly; but Ana caught her by the shoulder and looked in her face, and said:
"God help you, Raquel Estevan! To the recording angel she has taken that oath."
Keith Bryton closed the door on the weeping women, and walked out through the old refectory to the inner court, where he met Fernando.
"What is it, señor?" he asked. Bryton looked at him much as though he had not been there.