“Were you going to commit suicide?” I asked, smilingly, after we had exchanged warm greetings and embraced each other.
“No, indeed,” replied Pepita’s boarder; “I was only thinking, to pass away the time, how wise a thing I should do if I did throw myself over headlong. That street with its hard stones was calling me loudly. There I might put an end to all trickery and poverty—don’t you know? Pepa has almost put me into the street. I scarcely ever smoke now. I still have a room where I can sleep, but that matter of eating is a luxury I am not acquainted with. The landlady is furious because Don Julián has vanished like smoke, and will no longer maintain me. They have stopped my allowance. Will you treat to a beefsteak?”
We went out to Bailen Street, and were not long in settling ourselves in an eating-house before some very appetizing broiled chops. The prodigal, in a melancholy tone, said to us:
“Some days I feel so desperate that I even think of going to work at something. But at what? Besides, that is a foolish idea, produced by weakness or brandy. No, when I have a quarter in my pocket I wager it and win a hundred. I am not meant for the ignominy of working. Keep that for negroes. Besides, one can always find good friends, who wont refuse a fellow a dollar when he asks for it. Don’t think I live by cheating, boys; cheating comes in when one promises to pay, and I never do anything so foolish as that. The man who loans me anything, makes me a present.
“Do you know what a trick Mauricio Parra and Pepe Vidal played on me during Carnival? Do you know them? One is in the School of Architecture, the other in the School of Mines. They board at Pepe Urrutia’s. Well, we had a boarder there, a fine-looking lady, a widow from Córdova, and a most attractive woman. I was making up to her a little. One night I heard that she was going to a masked ball at the Royal——, and I without a cent!
“But Mauricio and Pepe encouraged me, bought tickets, and went with me to the ball. Well, the masked lady came up to us. I recognized her at once.
“‘I am thirsty,’ she said; ‘will you treat me? Let us go to the supper-room.’
“I saw the heavens opened before me, and the infernal regions at the same time, because I did not have a single penny. I put my hand behind me, and made signs to Mauricio and Pepe. I felt them put a coin in my hand. Heavens! What could it be? A dollar, without doubt, although it seemed somewhat smaller. I slipped it into my pocket without looking at it, and up I went as brave as a lion. She began to eat cakes and drink sherry, while I was trembling for fear the bill would amount to more than a dollar. It seemed as if the good lady would never stop gorging herself. At last she concluded to stop, and I took out the money from my pocket and gave it to the waiter with a lordly air, saying:
“‘Take out what I owe.’
“‘Why, sir, you have given me a copper!’