"Oh, yes. You see, I am very accommodating."
"It is exactly this pliancy, so foreign to your character and habits, which makes me tremble."
"Folly! What more unjust suspicion! It happens one day that I remember I am man; that it is my duty to succour my fellow creatures: and you give me no credit for it!"
"¡Caspita! How could it be otherwise? Your intrigues are so dark, the means you employ are so utterly at variance with common usage in similar cases, that, in spite of my knowledge of your character, the real object of your machinations perpetually eludes me."
The visage of the Tigercat lighted up once more with a smile of triumph; but he repressed it immediately, and assumed a look of paternal benevolence.
"In spite of all you say," he answered, "my object in this case is so plain that a child might see it."
"Then I must be an idiot, for I cannot divine it; on which account, I must beg you to explain your wishes frankly."
"To make you adore the little one, ¡vive Cristo!"
"Me!" exclaimed the hunter, astounded at the proposition, and purple with blushes.
"And whom else, if not you?—unless it were myself."