"If you could have seen—shiver my shins!—how he behaved! I with the whip, and he, thud, thud, against the dashboard. I returned to the stable and put on the kicking strap. Then I went out again. But what did the creature do this time? He got between the wheel and the traces, and then he began neighing. Dash me! I very nearly broke a lamp."
"I must get to the bottom of this," returned Pablito, profoundly interested, and leaving Nieves to go over to Piscis.
"I must think it over to-night," returned the Centaur, looking very grave, "and we will see to-morrow what we can do."
The two friends then lowered their voices and plunged into an animated private discussion.
Gonzalo was disturbed. He kept casting glances at the door, hoping every minute to see Venturita return. Nevertheless, the time went on and the girl did not appear. His abstraction so notably increased that Cecilia had to ask him the same question three times.
"What is the matter? Your thoughts seem to be wandering."
"It is so," he said, slightly coloring; "I recollect that I ought to write to London to-day on an important matter of business, and it is now about six o'clock."
Whereupon he took leave of his betrothed, of Doña Paula, and the rest of the party, and left the house.
Once in the passage he slackened his steps, and began looking round on all sides without seeing what he wished. Then, with bent head, he slowly and sadly descended the staircase and was about to raise the latch of the door when he thought the string by which it was pulled from upstairs shook. He stood a moment motionless. He again raised his hand to the latch, and again noticed the vibration of the cord. Then he turned back, looked up the staircase, and there above a pretty little face was smiling at him.
"Is it you?" he asked in a falsetto voice, his countenance suffused with joy.