“Very good; I shall take advantage of your protection.... Ha, ha!”
“You shall see. You won’t have to work.”
“Work! Ha ... ha ... ha! That is an idea that never occurred to me, good dame. Far from me is that vulgar thought.... Ah!... Ha ... ha ... ha!”
Señora Patrocinio seized Quentin by the arm and led him to the street.
“Now, go home,” she said to him; “some other day I shall tell you something that may interest you. Should you need money, come here before you go anywhere else.”
This said, she pushed Quentin into the middle of the street. The coolness of the night air cleared his head. Day had not yet dawned; the sky was clean and cloudless; the moon was low in the heavens—just touching the horizon.
CHAPTER XI
MORE INCOMPREHENSIBLE THAN THE HEART OF A GROWN WOMAN, IS THAT OF A GIRL-CHILD
QUENTIN did not abandon the idea of becoming intimate with Rafaela.
He now knew the close relationship that united them. They were of the same family. Things would have to turn out badly indeed not to be advantageous to him.
One morning Quentin again went to his cousin’s house. He found the gate open, and went as far as the interior of the garden without ringing. He found Juan, the gardener, busily occupied in trying to turn the key which let the water out of the pool; an undertaking in which he was not successful.