“Ready?” I echoed. “For what?”
“Why to drive with you all to Don Cipriano's! What else? We mustn't lose a minute, or our bad fairy will have time to work some other evil charm before we've remedied the first. Oh, I may be only a girl, and not of importance; but Don Cipriano thinks me important, and I shall have to be there to make smiles at him. [pg 132]He has a Gloria, and it is twenty-four horse-power. Father sent to order a carriage while I put on my hat and coat. Don Cipriano's place is only half an hour out of Madrid, even with a ‘simón.’ He breeds horses, and oh, such dogs! Come along—come along!”
“At this time of night?” said Dick. “He'll think we're mad!”
“It's always early till to-morrow morning in Madrid,” laughed Pilar. “Ah, how nice to have an excitement!”
“He won't be at home,” said Dick.
“Yes, he will. San Cristóbal will keep him there.”
Before we knew what we were doing, this small Spanish whirlwind had swept us downstairs in her train, into the vehicle which had actually arrived, and out into the midst of a night-scene as lively as a fair. Many shops were open and brilliantly illuminated. Café windows blazed like diamonds; half the population of Madrid was in the streets, and a stranger might have thought that something unusual had happened; but Pilar assured us it was “always like that.” “You can live in the street if you like, in Madrid,” said she, “and I should think lots of quite charming people do. There are sweets and fruit when you're hungry, and water and wine and fresh milk of goats when you're thirsty, cool doorways or nice hot pavements to sleep on when you're tired, with lettuce leaves or a cabbage for a pillow, all at a cost of a penny or two a day; and if you're clever somebody passing by will give you that penny. So, rich or poor, with a palace or no home, you can be happy in Madrid.”
“I wonder how you'd like New York?” muttered Dick.
“That depends on the person I lived with!” said Pilar.
Soon we had left the gold and crimson glow of the streets, and were out in the blue night. Over the Puente de Toledo we passed, and on along a broad white road.