The Colonel’s wife, Chuchita and her blond sister, accompanied by a Senator, a newspaper man and a well-known bull-fighter, were getting ready for supper in one of the Círculo’s private rooms.
According to popular gossip, Chuchita showed a decided inclination toward the bull-fighter, and the Colonel’s wife not only did not seek to dissuade her, but had actually sent for the torero so that Chuchita’s début might be in every way a pleasant event for the child....
The opening of the Salón París gave Manuel and Vidal opportunity to make new acquaintances.
Vidal had become friends with Chuchita’s brother, who hung about the theatre as a pimp, and the youngster took Vidal and Manuel to the dancers’ greenroom.
When La Justa discovered the sort of friends Manuel was now consorting with she raised a terrible row. La Justa had become bent upon making Manuel’s life intolerable, and when she wasn’t upbraiding him and telling him that he was nothing but a loafer who sponged on her earnings, she was exhibiting the wildest jealousy. Whenever she had one of these outbursts Manuel would shrug his shoulders resignedly, while La Justa, plunged for the nonce into the depths of despair, would throw herself prone upon the floor and lie there motionless, as if dead. Then her paroxysm of anger would pass, and she would be so quiet....
CHAPTER IV
An Execution—On the Sotillo Bridge—Destiny
It was a night in August; Manuel, Vidal, La Flora and La Justa had just left El Dorado theatre, when Vidal suggested: