A capricious fancy flashed through my imagination, a thrill ran along my veins, which I repressed with the comparative effort needed to subject purely physical impulses.
“Be a little careful, Salustio. You are excited to-day. Go very slowly.”
Then, in order to say something to the girl, I asked:
“Is that a single tree I see from the window?”
“Why, don’t you know it is the Tejo (the yew-tree)?”
“A single yew cover that immense space! Santa Bárbara! It must be at least half a league in circumference.”
“Half a league! How absurd! Don’t exaggerate so. It is not half a league from this place to San Andrés. But I tell you it is three stories high.”
“Three stories in a tree!”
“Oh, it’s so, you’ll see! One is the ball-room, the other is where they take coffee, and from the third you can see a great deal of land—and the river, and everything.”