My uncle entered with the air of a lord and master.
“Come here at once, all of you. I have brought you a young man, and you must be careful how you treat him.”
Saying this, he led on over the loosened tiles of the passage-way to a small parlor, without any furniture excepting a sofa and two arm-chairs with calico coverings, an old mahogony shelf, several cheap and gaudy chromos, a little table on which stood several bottles of mucilage, broken plates, brushes, and scissors; scattered all around, on the table, chairs, sofa, floor, shelf, and I believe even on the walls and the ceiling, were endless remnants of silk, satin, and plush; blue, yellow, green, pink, and of all the colors of the rainbow, mixed up with strips of paste-board, circular pieces of the same, gilt and silver tinsel, ribbons and galloons, chromos and paints, flowers, and the thousand other accessories belonging to the pleasing trade of covering and decorating boxes of sweetmeats “for weddings and christenings,”—for this was the official occupation of those buxom girls. A woman, about fifty years old, shriveled, untidy, with very weak eyes, was busy in decorating a lilac-silk bag by pasting on each side a bunch of lilies and an angel’s face that she had cut from a chromo containing at least ten legions of angels. She saluted my uncle, saying, “Good afternoon,” in a dry manner, and went on pasting lilies and angels. Then my uncle, turning toward the girls who were following us, tapped each one under the chin in succession, and introduced them to me as “Señorita Belén—Señorita Cinta.”
After that, drawing near to the table, he exclaimed, jestingly:
“What a barricade! Come, girls, clear things away! I must treat my nephew.”
The old woman then interfered, exclaiming harshly:
“That’s it! waste the afternoon for us, so that when the time comes to deliver the work at the shop, we’ll just tell them that there was too much chattering, isn’t that so? As for things to eat, there’s nothing here but a miserable dish of rice and mussels.”
My uncle’s lips contracted, as they always did previous to his disbursing any money, but that movement was only momentary, and drawing forth a coin from his vest pocket he gave it to the smaller girl, saying:
“Cintita, just get some sherry wine, and biscuits, and a few oranges also.”
This argument was convincing to the old woman.