"Get along! Hold your tongue, you rude fellow!" said the lady half-laughing, giving him a pinch.
"What is being said of Don Santos?" asked a short, broad gentleman, with a fat purple face, who approached the group.
The count and Amalia did not know what to answer.
"They were remarking," said Manuel Antonio, with his ready tongue, "that Don Santos thought of taking us up to his place, the Castañeda (Chestnuts)."
"No, no, it was not that," returned the stout man with a forced smile.
"Yes it was, and Amalia maintained that you were not up to taking us to the Castañeda for the day."
"But, my good fellow, you seem bent on painting me in very black colours," said Amalia.
"Because I am a real friend. How pale you have been looking lately.... You must credit me, Santos, for having a higher opinion of your generosity than the majority of people. 'You don't know Don Santos,' I often say to those who declare that you do not like spending money. 'If Don Santos does not spend and does not entertain his friends, it is not from avarice but from indolence, and from want of a fitting occasion. The man is self-distrustful, and incapable of proposing banquets or festivities; but let anybody start the idea, and you will see how gladly it will be followed up.'"
"Thank you, thank you, Manuel Antonio," murmured Don Santos, with a rabbit-like smile.
The poor man was indeed continually haunted by the fear of appearing mean. Like many of the Indians, the fact of his being immensely rich gave him a reputation, not utterly unfounded, of being mean. He arrived a few years ago from Cuba, where by dint of first packing cases with sugar and then selling them, he amassed an immense fortune. He was like a Bedouin, without any regard for what went on in the world; he could not speak a dozen words correctly, nor comport himself like other men. The thirty years he had spent behind a counter had caused his legs to swell, which had given him the gait of a drunken man. The high colour of his complexion was so characteristic, that in Lancia, where few people escaped a nickname, he was dubbed Garnet.