"Señor Darlés—my friend, Candelas."
Candelas fixed her keen, vivid eyes on the new-comer. Then she peered at Alicia, as if asking whether this visit might not perhaps veil some amorous secret. The girl understood, and gave her friend's sophisticated question a vertical answer:
"No, you're wrong. Enrique comes here only because he's Don Manuel's friend."
The student nodded assent to this, and Candelas smiled coldly. Then the two girls once more took up the thread of the conversation broken by the arrival of Darlés. The poor fellow sensed that he was isolated and dismissed. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, with no break in that animated chatter. Men's names came into it; and Candelas laughed heartily as she reviewed the details of a recent supper she had had. Alicia laughed, too. Quite possibly she did this to hurt the student's feelings and to persuade herself Enrique really was nothing more to her than just Don Manuel's friend.
A visitor dropped in; an old woman who dealt in clothes and trinkets. She had a heavy bundle with her, and this she put down on the floor. Alicia asked her:
Clotilde fairly oozed enjoyment, in her thick cloak, as she answered:
"I've got the finest petticoats and stockings in the world."
"High-priced?"
"Dirt cheap! I don't know why, but I've got it into my head you want to spend a little money, to-day."