“St. Peter’s cock!” said Paoletti in a low voice to Leon. Then, looking quickly round at María he went on:
“I began with thinking of your soul and ended with the cocks and hens in the village. Another time we will begin with the farm-yard and rise to Heavenly things ... God be with you.”
“But are you really going?” said María sincerely distressed.
“I will take a little walk and get something to eat and come back later.”
“On no account,” said Leon. “You will eat something here.”
“Thank you, thank you, Doña María,” said Paoletti, bending over the lady with a very mundane bow and smiling familiarly. “Your husband is most kind. I have never seen him since that melancholy time when our dear Luis quitted this world for a better. It has given me great pleasure to see him to-day.”
María looked at her husband with a mixed expression of kindliness and aversion.
“Do you know, my dear lady,” he went on, “that to-day, by the most extraordinary coincidence, I discovered something?”
“What?” asked María anxiously.
“We will talk of it by-and-bye—I do not want to fatigue you.”