Tessa was young, but the women of Cuba, like those of most tropical countries, mature early in life, and she already had the strong maternal instinct that is a part of normal womanhood; this instinct now directed her to watch over Manuello as if he were, indeed, her child, instead of the man to whom she had given the first wild love of her fiery nature; for women are made that way ... no matter what their own body may demand of them, it is as natural for them to put all personal feeling aside and allow a higher, more unselfish love to rule them entirely, as it is for a man to, first gratify his own desires, and, then, if so be he can without inconvenience to himself in any way, minister to the wants of the woman in the case, all well and good, but if, on the contrary, to care for the woman would, in any way, cause him to exercise self-control and self-sacrifice, why, of course, he seeks another woman as soon as he can well rid himself of the one who has flouted him; I am now speaking of the general run of men ... there are exceptions to this rule, of course, just as there are exceptions to the rule just stated regarding women ... not all women are as little Tessa was, but most of them are and it is indeed fortunate for the world of men and women that this is as it is ... wonderful beyond the ways of human beings is the love of a pure woman ... wonderful and worthy of the highest respect and devotion of any man is the almost angelic love that women often bestow on most unworthy objects. It was so in this case, for, while the girl was winding among the cacti that hindered her advance up the hill, the man was lying in a miserable heap in the corner of the deserted hut, cursing not only his own hard luck, but even the girl on whom he depended for sustenance and care; with maledictions on his tongue and the heavy manacles on his wrist, and with the increasing pain and torment of his undressed wound, the poor fellow was far from appearing much as had the gay peasant who had congratulated himself on having escaped from prison, and, at the same time, having rid himself of his rival in the affections of Estrella, who, now, seemed lost to him.