"Ah! ah!"
"Yes, and as I would not listen to you, you added—"
"What!" Don Ramón, who knew of old the man he had to deal with, said, with a start—"do you mean to say that I added something?"
"The devil! yes," said the other. "You added this; and I repeat your own words. You said, as plainly as you could speak—'And I will give a thousand piastres in addition.'"
"Oh, that is not possible!" the senator ejaculated, quite beside himself.
"Perhaps I did not understand you?"
"That must be it."
"Do you admit you mentioned the two thousand?" asked the General, quietly.
"Not at all! not at all!" replied Don Ramón, quite confounded by the laughter of the bystanders.
"Perhaps you meant more; well, we will not haggle about that."