Señor Custodio's ideas had worked a strong influence upon Manuel; but since, despite this, his adventurous instincts persisted, he thought of going off to America, or becoming a sailor, or something of that sort.
CHAPTER VIII
The Square—A Wedding in La Bombilla—The Asphalt Caldrons.
The betrothal of El Carnicerín and Justa was formally arranged, Señor Custodio and his wife bathed in rose water, and only Manuel believed that in the end the wedding would never take place.
El Carnicerín was all together too haughty and too much of a fine fellow to marry the daughter of a ragdealer; Manuel imagined that now the butcher's son would try to take advantage of his opportunity. But for the present nothing authorized such malevolent suppositions.
El Carnicerín was generosity itself and showed delicate attentions to his sweetheart's parents.
One summer day he invited the whole family and Manuel to a bull fight. Justa dressed up very fetchingly in her best to make a worthy companion to her lover. Señor Custodio took out his finest apparel: the new fedora, new although it was more than thirty years old; his coat of doubled cloth, excellent for the boreal regions, and a cane with a horn handle, bought in El Rastro; the ragdealer's wife wore a flowered kerchief, while Manuel made a most ridiculous appearance in a hat that was taken from the shop and protruded about a palm's length before his eyes, a winter suit that suffocated him and a pair of tight shoes.
Behind Justa and El Carnicerín, Señor Custodio, his wife and Manuel attracted everybody's attention and left a wake of laughter.
Justa turned back to look at them and could not help smiling. Manuel walked along in a rage, stifling, his hat pressing tightly against his forehead and his feet aching.
They got into a street car at Toledo Street and rode to the Puerta del
Sol; there they boarded art omnibus, which took them to the bull ring.