“I am rather plump,” she said.
“Plump! you are getting to be like a ball,” said her friend; and she added enviously, “Look at you with your dresses, with a husband like yours, with everything you want, and without a single care!”
“Come,” said Luiza, banteringly, “your troubles do not seem to make you thin.”
“But they affect me, nevertheless,” she said disconsolately, as if she were weighed down under the burden of her cares. “Everything inside is in a deplorable condition,—my stomach, my liver.”
“If the woman of Tuy works a miracle, they will be as good as new again.”
Donna Felicidade smiled, with an expression of mingled doubt and sadness.
“Do you know that I have a charming hat?” suddenly exclaimed Luiza. “Have you seen it?”
She went to the wardrobe and took it out. It was of straw, adorned with myosotis.
“What do you think of it?” she asked.
“It is beautiful!”