"Wait here; I am going to open the window."
And nimbly hurrying ahead, she ran up a half-dozen steps which led to the skylight, and threw open the door. A burst of intense, bright, comforting sunshine suddenly invaded the whole garret, dazzling our young hero.
"Here is Menino! Here's Menino!" cried Marta, enthusiastically, as she stood on the top step. "He's very near! Menino! Menino! Come, tonto, here! here! Don't you know me?"
Menino, who was only six or eight steps away when he heard his mistress's voice, bent his head gracefully, as if to listen. The sunlight, falling full on him, bathed his yellow plumage, making him contrast so vividly with the red-colored roof that he seemed like a bit of living gold. He hopped thrice or four times, as though he were going to Marta, and said, Pii, pii.
"Do you want me to try to get him?" asked Ricardo.
"No; hold still a moment; he seems to be coming of his own accord. Menino, Menino! come here, pretty one; come here, come!"
Menino came two or three hops nearer, and seemed to be cocking his head to listen. I don't know what then passed through his brain; something low, and base, and shameful, it must have been, according to the morality of his species, for, forgetting his mistress's tender attentions, her ceaseless caresses, the many bits of chocolate shared with her, the feasts of biscuits, and his overflowing dishes of canary-seed, he cleaned his feathers in her presence with perfect indifference, several times repeated his pii, pii, with affected laziness, and spreading his wings, he launched into space, flying out of sight amid the foliage of the neighboring gardens.
Marta uttered a cry of grief.
"My stars, he has gone!"
"Has gone?"