Isabel appeared, furious. To have left her like that, without even giving notice, a wretched, brazen Indian she had done so much for! And like all those of her race, Teresa deliberately chose the worst moment. Just when she was most needed because a parlormaid had left and the woman who washed the clothes couldn’t cope. At that precise moment it occurred to Teresa to go off half-cocked. But, after all, said Isabel, it’s just what I deserved for having expected any gratitude from an Indian. Teresa wept with contrition and promised never to do it again. She had been crazy, someone had cast an evil spell on her, because otherwise she could not explain what drove her to leave. And while she spoke, punctuating her words with gasps that tried to seem like sobs, she stimulated her tears by rubbing her eyes with the corner of her rebozo.

Isabel let herself be softened. After all, what did it matter if she were served by this one or another? At least she already knew Teresa’s ways. And she was dependable and diligent. After the lesson she was going to be taught, she would have no inclination ever to jump the traces again.

From that night on, Teresa was given a cold tortilla (because no one was going to waste good coal coddling flighty Indians) and a few swallows of coffee, also unheated, for dinner. Teresa chewed the hard mouthful, sad because she still hadn’t seen Idolina, who was out visiting La Alazana.

Idolina came home late and cheerful. When she discovered that the person who was going to help her undress was Teresa she embraced her effusively, though it was an effusiveness born of other causes and directed toward other people.

Teresa felt the distance that persisted in this embrace, but she shut her eyes so as not to see this alien girl who moved about with ease—as if she had never been sick—and chatted endlessly about events and things of which Teresa knew nothing. When the time came to sleep, Teresa stayed awake for a long while, eyes wide open in the darkness, asking herself the same question she had asked in the cave: What do I have to do with this place?

The following days helped her to get back into a routine. She had no time for reflection and at night when it was time to lie down she fell exhausted onto the floor, because her old cot was now being used by a maid who had always jealously coveted it.