To judge from the expression of pleasure which shone in his eyes, Garnet delighted in giving utterance to this remark.
"But it is not cold here, eh? I am not cold, he! he! On the contrary I feel hot. It is because your eyes are two coals—they are burn——"
Another time he would have finished the word burning without any hesitation, but to excuse his confusion, he feigned a cough which made his purple face look as if he were suffering strangulation.
The beauty, who had kept her eyes fixed on space, now turned her head towards her adorer, and looked at him with a vague, absent expression, as if she did not see him. She then got up, and without vouchsafing a word, took a seat a little way off. So the Indian was left with the same stereotyped smile on his face, like the petrified grimace of a satyr. But when he saw the eyes of the others fixed derisively upon him, he suddenly became cross and peevish.
"What has this Garnet to do with the ladies?" said Paco Gomez to the count. "As I was saying the other day, you do not need to go to America for rich women. Your face is your fortune."
"Look, my dear count, you ought to go and sit by her side. You will see she won't get up then," said Manuel Antonio.
"Yes, yes, you ought to go, Luis," said Maria Josefa, "we shall be able to see then whether she is in love with you or not. Really, Amalia, ought he not to go?"
"Yes, it seems to me that you ought to sit by her side," said the lady in measured, trembling tones.
"Do you think so?" asked the count, looking earnestly at her.
"Yes, go," returned the lady, with perfect serenity, avoiding his eyes.