"He did not say whether the Señorit' had go to the Port of Entry; he—"
"And who told you to enquire whether the Señorita had gone to the Port of Entry or not?"
Rotiro perceived at once that he had made a gigantic slip. When Don Gil next spoke, Rotiro was busy watching the parjara bobo which loped along within the enclosure. The bird, stupid by name and nature alike, came so close that Rotiro could almost have touched it with his hand.
"Do you hear my question?"
Rotiro started at the tones of thunder.
"No one inform me, Seño'. I had heard talk of it."
"Two fools in one enclosure! The bird is as clever as you. Do not try to think, Rotiro. Have you never heard that peons should never try to think? Leave the vacuum which nature abhors in its natural state." Rotiro looked blankly at Don Gil, who often amused himself at the expense of the stupid. Just now he was angry, and ready to say something harsh which even a wiser peon than Rotiro could not understand. Rotiro's vacuum was working, however, as even vacuums will. "Decidedly, I have made a very grand mistake of some kind; but when a letter will not stick, it is so easy—the thing, however, is not to let him—"
"Rotiro!"