The master looked wrathfully at his majordomo; but seeing him in such a comfortable position he changed his mind, and, shrugging his shoulders, he turned his attention to his cards, merely remarking with a pleasant smile:
"What a barbarian! He is a regular Sueve."
"But, Señor Quiñones," said Saleta, "the Suevi only settled in Galicia. You are nothing but Cantabrians, and I have reason to know it."
"What! you have reason to know it!" said a gentleman who was not very old, for he would have passed for fifty, who came in at that moment.
It was Don Enrique Valero, also a magistrate of the Court, a man of an agreeable presence, with a fine expressive face, albeit somewhat marked by the fast life he had lived. As shown by his strong accent, which was mincing and lisping, he was Andalusian, of the province of Malaga.
"I don't quite know that," returned Saleta, calmly, "but I perfectly well know the history of my country, and the particulars regarding my family."
"And why do you mention your family in connection with the Suevi, my friend?"
"Because, according to various documents preserved in my ancestral archives, my family is descended from one of those brave commanders, who penetrated Pontevedra at the time of the invasion."
The players exchanged an amused smile of intelligence with Valero.
"Ah!" exclaimed the latter between amusement and irritation, "so my friend is a Sueve like a cathedral! Who would have thought it to see him so dwarfish and so small!"