The little girl returned directly to his room to bring the traveller his dessert, and they talked.
He asked her if she had a sweetheart, and she said she hadn’t; he asked her if she would like to have him, and she answered that gentlemen could not very well love poor girls who lived in taverns, and then they talked for a long time.
The next day, the young horseman left the tavern to proceed on his journey, and El Mojoso went down to Cordova to his business . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“And who was that young man?” asked Quentin.
“Wait, comrade. Everything in its time. How do you like the way I tell it, eh?”
“You certainly are a past master.”
“Well, now comes the best part of it. You’ll see....”
CHAPTER VIII
A FIGHT IN AN OLIVE ORCHARD
SEVERAL days afterward, just at dawn, El Mojoso was returning from Cordova to his tavern, when, at a turn in the road, he came upon a small cavalcade made up of six men—five of whom were soldiers, and the other, an elegantly dressed young man.