“I am always telling him that he ought to get through with his business in the day-time, but he will not mind me.”
“There is so much, so very much business to be got through.”
“No, say rather, that confounded work which you have undertaken. He does not wish to say it, Señor Don José, but the truth is that he is writing a book on ‘The Influence of Woman in Christian Society,’ and, in addition to that, ‘A Glance at the Catholic Movement in’—somewhere or other. What do you know about glances or influences? But these youths of the present day have audacity enough for any thing. Oh, what boys! Well, let us go home. Good-night, Señora Doña Perfecta—good-night, Señor Don José—Rosarito.”
“I will wait for Señor Don Cayetano,” said Jacinto, “to ask him to give me the Augusto Nicolas.”
“Always carrying books. Why, sometimes you come into the house laden like a donkey. Very well, then, let us wait.”
“Señor Don Jacinto does not write hastily,” said Pepe Rey; “he prepares himself well for his work, so that his books may be treasures of learning.”
“But that boy will injure his brain,” objected Doña Perfecta. “For Heaven’s sake be careful! I would set a limit to his reading.”
“Since we are going to wait,” said the little doctor, in a tone of insufferable conceit, “I will take with me also the third volume of Concilios. What do you think, uncle?”
“Take that, of course. It would never do to leave that behind you.”
Fortunately Señor Don Cayetano (who generally spent his evenings at the house of Don Lorenzo Ruiz) soon arrived, and the books being received, uncle and nephew left the house.