"To-day—to-day—you will see for yourself."
She waved her fat hand in a way calculated to leave me submerged in a sea of doubt.
While she was giving the last touches to her work, I took some absinthe to prepare my stomach adequately for its task, at the same time meditating upon the serious words that I had heard.
Would it, or would it not, be so well seasoned, piquant, and aromatic as my imagination depicted?
But when I had seated myself at the table; when I saw the dish before me and felt its bland fragrance penetrating my nostrils, a ray of light illumining my brain dissipated that dark spectral doubt. My heart began to palpitate with inexplicable pleasure. I comprehended that the gods still held in reserve some moments of happiness in this world.
Dame Ramona divined the emotion that overpowered my soul, and smiled with maternal benevolence.
"What's that, Dame Ramona?" I exclaimed, pausing with my fork held motionless in the air. "Did you hear it?"
"Yes, señor; I heard a scream."
"It called 'Help!'"
"Out on the wharf."