"Come on and don't make impertinent speeches. Take me to the house. This glare sickens me."
They reached the courtyard arm in arm. There a young fellow called out to them:
"Where are you off to? The people are in the wood."
"Tell the people that I scorn them all," returned Fernanda, with an angry gesture that provoked a smile from the youth.
"You don't know the house?" she added, lowering her voice and turning to Don Santos. "Then I will be your guide, you shall see it."
They mounted the mouldy, shabby staircase, and Fernanda, chattering continuously, did the honours of all the rooms to the Indian.
"Here is the celebrated Countess's Chamber!" she exclaimed with a peculiar intonation when they reached it. "I am tired."
They went in and the girl shut the door.
"It is pretty, eh? It is the most beautiful and the brightest room in the house. If this furniture could only tell amusing secrets, it never would have done. Look, tell me something to make me laugh or you will see me cry like a very schoolgirl. See now, I am crying. Sit down here you silly. What a pretty waistcoat you have on! How well it shows the line of the figure! Look at this couch. It is large, eh? It is wide, it is beautiful, it is artistic. Look, then, I should like to burn it. To avoid sitting on it I am going to sit on your knees."
And she suited the action to the words. Garnet lost his head when he found himself with such a sweet burden, and with incredible audacity he put an arm round her waist.