CHAPTER IV.
It was doubtless in order to lead up to this piece of news that he had ordered a caraffe of iced champagne, a luxury always to be enjoyed, and the more so that the heat was beginning to grow intense and the air to be parched in Madrid. I held the delicate glass, filled to the brim with that cool, golden liquid, and could not repress a start of surprise, when I heard his announcement, so that I dashed a little cascade of it on the table-cloth.
My uncle avoided meeting my gaze, though I stared at him with my eyes wide open in amazement. He pretended to be picking up the bread crumbs, and to be fastening his napkin to his button-hole, but he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye. As he observed that I did not say a word, he went on, with a forced voice: “I shall be very glad if you and your mother approve of my marriage.”
I, in the mean time, was absorbed in thought. Now I understand it. There is some mystery hidden here. His next neighbor must have lost her husband, or else they desire to legitimize their offspring. That’s the way it always works with old bachelors.
Finally, as I thought I ought to say something, I asked in a faltering tone: “Does my mother know about it?”
“Yes, I wrote to her yesterday.”
“I presume that you informed her of the name of your bride-elect?”
“Yes, it so happens that I first met her at Ullosa, at your mother’s, and became acquainted with her there.”
When the ice was once broken, my uncle kept on chattering very fast, like one wanting to free his mind in a hurry.