I approached the row of plantain-trees, whose leaves screened the speakers from view.
“Lupé! Lupé! mira! que bonito!” (Lupé! Lupé! look here! What a pretty thing!)
“Ah, pobrecito! echalo, Luz, echalo.” (Ah! poor little thing! fling it back, Luz.)
“Voy luego,” (Presently.)
I stooped down, and silently parted the broad, silken leaves. The sight was divine!
Within lay a circular tank, or basin, of crystal water, several rods in diameter, and walled in on all sides by the high screen of glossy plantains, whose giant leaves, stretching out horizontally, sheltered it from the rays of the sun.
A low parapet of mason-work ran around, forming the circumference of the circle. This was japanned with a species of porcelain, whose deep colouring of blue and green and yellow was displayed in a variety of grotesque figures.
A strong jet boiled up in the centre, by the refraction of whose ripples the gold and red fish seemed multiplied into myriads.
At a distant point a bed of water-lilies hung out from the parapet; and the long, thin neck of a swan rose gracefully over the leaves. Another, his mate, stood upon the bank drying her snowy pinions in the sun.
A different object attracted me, depriving me, for awhile, of the power of action.