Agueda, with work dropped, finger still pressed between her small white teeth, answered, wonderingly:
"A little child? Let me think, Señor."
"Ah!"
"Well, then, again I say Beltran, if you will. We have not much." How dear and natural the plural of the personal pronoun! "We have not much, I fear. There is the little cart that the Señora gave the Señor when he was muchachito. That is a good little plaything. I have cleaned it well since the last flood. The water washed even into the cupboard. Then there is—there is—ah, yes, the diamond cross. She will laugh, the little thing, when it flashes in the sunshine. Children love brilliant things. I remember well that the little Cristina, from the conuco, up there, used to love to see the sparkle of the jewels. But the little one will like the toy best."
"That is not much, dear heart."
"And then—and then—there may be rides on the bulls, and punting on the river in the flatboat, and the little chestnut—she can ride Castaño, the little thing!"
"Not the chestnut; I trained him for you, Agueda, child."
"And why should not the little one ride him, also? We can take her into the deep woods to gather the mamey apples, and to the bushes down in the river pasture to gather the aguacate. Only the little thing must be taught to keep away from the prickly branches, and—sometimes, Don—Beltran, we might take the child as far as Haldez, if some acrobats or circus men should arrive. We have not been there since Dondy-Jeem walked the rope that bright Sunday. Oh, yes! we shall find something to amuse her, certainly. A little child! We are to have a child in the house!" It was always a happy "we" with Agueda. "How old is the little thing?"
"I have not heard from my uncle for many years. I do not know when he married; but he is a young man still, Uncle Nóe. Full of affectation, speaking French in preference to Spanish and English, which are equally his mother tongues—I might say his mother and father tongue—but with all his affectations, delightful."
"A little child in the house! A little child in the house," murmured Agueda over and over to herself.