“Do you sell blue handkerchiefs, señor?”
Shopkeeper, recovering from what was really a sleep, though ostensibly awake: “Ah—er—buenos días, señor. Cómo está usté’? Cómo está la familia? The señor wishes—er—ah—what was it the señor requested?”
The chances always are that he has heard the question in his dreams and, if given time, will recall it:
“Handkerchiefs, is it not, señor?”
“Blue handkerchiefs, please.”
“Ah—er—cómo para qué cosa?” (What for, for instance?)
This question, which is seldom lacking, being ignored, the shopkeeper turned to let his eyes wander dreamily over his shelves, striving in vain to bring his attention down to the matter in hand. Finally he took a stick from a corner and fished from an upper shelf a paper-wrapped bundle. Opened, it disclosed a half-dozen pairs of faded red socks, made in Germany.
“But I said....”
Shopkeeper, suddenly, but not unexpectedly, without a pause between the questions: “Where do you come from where are you going?”
The traveler answers according to his character and mood. Meanwhile the merchant had fished down a bundle of red handkerchiefs.