"_Por Dios_, Rubia," he ejaculated, "remember yourself. You are out of your head." "Come back to me; love me." "No, no." "Come back to me." "No." "You cannot push me from you," she cried, for, one hand upon her shoulder, he had sought to disengage himself. "No, I shall not let you go. You shall not push me from you! Thrust me off and I will embrace you all the closer. Yes, _strike_ me if you will, and I will kiss you." And with the words she suddenly pressed her lips to his. Abruptly Felipe freed himself. A new thought suddenly leaped to his brain. "Let your own curse return upon you," he cried. "You yourself have freed me; you yourself have broken the barrier you raised between me and my betrothed. You cursed her whose lips should next touch mine, and you are poisoned with your own venom." He sprang from off the bed, and catching up his _serape_, flung it about his shoulders. "Felipe," she cried, "Felipe, where are you going?" "Back to Buelna," he shouted, and with the words rushed from the room. Her strength seemed suddenly to leave her. She sank lower to the floor, burying her face deep upon the pillows that yet retained the impress of him she loved so deeply, so recklessly. Footsteps in the passage and a knocking at the door aroused her. A woman, one of the escort who had accompanied her, entered hurriedly. "Senorita," cried this one, "your brother, the Senor Unzar, he is dying." Rubia hurried to an adjoining room, where upon a mattress on the floor lay her brother. "Put that woman out," he gasped as his glance met hers. "I never sent for her," he went on. "You are no longer sister of mine. It was you who drove me to this quarrel, and when I have vindicated you what do you do? Your brother you leave to be tended by hirelings, while all your thought and care are lavished on your paramour. Go back to him. I know how to die alone, but as you go remember that in dying I hated and disowned you." He fell back upon the pillows, livid, dead. Rubia started forward with a cry. "It is you who have killed him," cried the woman who had summoned her. The rest of Rubia's escort, _vaqueros_, _peons_, and the old _alcalde_ of her native village, stood about with bared heads. "That is true. That is true," they murmured. The old _alcalde_ stepped forward. "Who dishonours my friend dishonours me," he said. "From this day, Senorita Ytuerate, you and I are strangers." He went out, and one by one, with sullen looks and hostile demeanour, Rubia's escort followed. Their manner was unmistakable; they were deserting her. Rubia clasped her hands over her eyes. "Madre de Dios, Madre de Dios," she moaned over and over again. Then in a low voice she repeated her own words: "May it be a blight to her. From that moment may evil cling to her, bad luck follow her; may she love and not be loved; may friends desert her, her sisters shame her, her brothers disown her----" There was a clatter of horse's hoofs in the courtyard.