"What an extraordinary thing! what an extraordinary thing!"
The maid-servants turned their heads around. Marta likewise looked up.
"Why, what's the matter?"
"But child, where did you get those plump arms of yours?"
The young girl blushed, and half-laughing, half-vexed, raised her hand and pulled down her sleeve a little.
"Come! will you begin now? See here, I did not tell you that you might stay to behave like this."
"Then I deserve the punishment of staying, though you should demand the opposite."
"Well, do what you please, but let me work in peace."
"I will let you work, but I must say it never entered into my calculations that the Señorita Marta had such arms. I knew that she was pretty, comely, round, and solid—but how could I suspect such a thing?... Come now, I tell you that no one would believe it without the evidence of his eyes."
The servants laughed. Marta went on industriously kneading her dough, making a gesture of resignation as one who has made up her mind to endure a jest to the end. Ricardo kept on:—