Marianela

Pablo takes Teodoro through the mines. They come across an area called La Terrible. The area is a deep cavern with terrifying formations that look like the shapes of petrified creatures and people. They proceed ahead until they hear Nela’s voice. Pablo tells Nela to wait for them to approach as they are headed towards her direction. He explains to Teodoro that Nela is his guide. She was tasked by his father to bring him a cloak. Nela had obediently gone to fetch it and is now meeting them. 

Pablo continues to guide Teodoro through another tunnel where they pass a bottomless cavern called La Trascava, which leads to the sea at Ficóbriga. The young boy explains that all those who have jumped into the cavern have never come out. While others are frightened of this cavern, he and Nela would sit by it and listen to the gurgling of the water, which sounds like speaking voices. He explains that while others might consider the darkness of these mines to be gloomy, he finds that the darkness matches his own perception of the world as a blind person. 

When Pablo and Teodoro finally reach the surface, the boy shows Teodoro a rock that he has picked up in the tunnel, thinking it to be a crystal. Teodoro tells him that the crystal is only a rock and laments that Pablo cannot appreciate the stars in the sky. He offers words of hope to the young boy, but secretly believes there is nothing to be done about Pablo’s lack of sight. 

Finally, they come face to face with Nela who has brought a cloak for the young boy. Pablo instructs Nela to show Teodoro around the rest of the mines while he returns to his father, who is expecting him.

Teodoro lights a cigar and uses the light to look at Nela’s face. Her features show her to be both grown and childlike. She reveals that she is an orphan and has been under the current care of Señor Centeno, the overseer of the mines, for the past thirteen years. When Teodoro inquires after her parents’ background, she tells him that they were unmarried when they lived in Villamojada. Her mother sold peppers at the market while her father lit and cleaned the first street lamps in the town. Once, when Nela was an infant, her father brought her with him to light the street lamps and accidentally dropped her into the river. Although Nela was fine, her mother never forgave her father, leaving him to die alone in a hospital years later when he fell ill. Her mother found work in the mines but was let go from her position for drinking too much. Her mother then committed suicide by jumping into the cavern at La Trascava.

Teodoro expresses deep sympathy for Nela’s unfortunate life. Despite Teodoro’s best efforts to remind Nela of her worth, she keeps insisting, “I am no good to any one” (24). She tells him that she is too weak to work in the mines so she is tasked with the care of Pablo. She mentions that Teodoro’s brother, Cárlos, an engineer at the mines, has a sibling who can cure Pablo of his blindness. Unbeknownst to Nela, Teodoro is the doctor who has come to attempt to treat Pablo’s blindness. Teodoro does not reveal himself to her. 

Eventually, the two reach the furnaces. Several houses and offices are located nearby. Teodoro hears a piano playing from one of the houses and immediately recognizes it as his sister-in-law Sofía’s tune. When Teodoro and Nela reach the house, Teodoro’s brother and sister-in-law come to great them joyously. Teodoro gives Nela a peseta (a silver coin) for assisting him on his journey.