Roberto lost his head. He kissed her frantically. Esther encircled his neck with her arms; a deep sigh of desperation and desire sent tremors rippling from her head to her feet.

“Shall we go?”

“Let’s go.”

They left the house.

A few hours later, Bernardo Santín, with his wife’s note in his fingers, was muttering:

“And my poor father? What’s going to become of my poor father now?”


CHAPTER V

General Strike—Gay Times—The Dance at the Frontón—Initiation Into Love