“They're sacred, too,” assented Pilar. “Did you know, in the old days they used to be sold only for gold, gold carried on mule back in great bags, and exchanged on the spot, for the trees—so many for so much? We have olives at our place, and they're gathered in such a nice old-fashioned way; papa doesn't care for new ways, even if they make a little more money. It's pretty to watch. I should like you to see it, only—Señor Waring doesn't like old-fashioned things.”
[pg 199] “I like making the ‘little more money,’ I'm afraid,” Dick confessed.
“Sometimes I like money too—when I want to buy anything. At other times I don't care. Lately I've been saving up. I've got one thousand nine hundred pesetas.”
“Good gracious!” laughed Dick, “are you going to buy a bull-farm with such a gigantic sum?”
“Funny you should have said that. I'm going to buy one bull. He's the only possession of the Duke of Carmona's that I want, and I want him so much that I've sacrificed oh,—I can't remember how many Paris hats, and shoes, and silk petticoats, and pretty dresses to get him, with all my own money! The worst of it is, he'll never know about the hats and things.”
Dick was looking interested now.
“What in the name of goodness will you do with him when you get him?” he inquired.
“Save him,” said the girl.
“From what?”
“From the bull-ring. Oh, he's a toro bravo, is Vivillo, a heart of gold. Not the most famous torero in Spain shall pierce it. I've loved him for four years, since he was a baby at his mother's side, and Rafael Calmenare used to take me to visit him; loved him better even than Corcito, and all this time I've been saving up to buy him before he's of the age for a corrida. Now I've enough, or nearly, and there aren't many weeks to waste, for soon he'll be five; and already he has the strength and courage of three bulls, my Vivillo! I long to see him again—long for the day when I can put my arms round his great neck, and say, ‘Hermanito, you're mine!’ ”