“Search for it carefully,” I murmured, with difficulty concealing my annoyance and disgust. “Search your pocket, they have not taken it, that’s nonsense! I think your overcoat bulges out at the side, there.”
He took a deep breath; the pocket-book was found. He felt of it joyfully, stopping under the light of a lamp-post to make sure that all the money was there. After he had searched the depths of his pocket-book, he recovered his good humor and said: “And, besides, it contained my Carmen’s photograph. A nice fix I’d have been in, if they had stolen it. Belén would have been capable of digging out the eyes with a big pin.”
He handed me the photograph, which was a small one, such a we give to those we love. I saw a youthful face, with a high, broad forehead, the hair dressed in a simple style, a pair of bright eyes with a gleam of passion and strength of will which surprised me—for I had pictured my uncle’s sweetheart as mild and yielding, passively submitting to everything put upon her. Nor did I find her as plain as my mother had led me to expect. She had one of those faces, which, without being beautiful, attract your gaze the second time.
I left my uncle at the door of his hotel, and went to bed not far from daybreak.
I should never end if I were to tell how Portal teased me the next day. He smelled of my clothes, and then smacked his lips, exclaiming:
“Aha! You’re a sly bird, you rogue! Odor di femina!” Suddenly he burst out laughing:
“Ho, ho! What’s all this!”
On the left leg of my trousers were stuck two little heads of angels, a rose, a bunch of lilies, and I know not what other properties. I had to make a clean breast of it, and give him a faithful and detailed description of the sweetmeat-box artists.
CHAPTER VI.
How glad I felt to start for Galicia! In Madrid the heat had become stifling, while at home one could enjoy the pure, fresh air, filled with the sweet fragrance of the country. It seemed as if I had never breathed before, and that my exhausted lungs required that moist, balmy, and pure air in order to perform their functions properly.