“Take good care of yourself, then, my dear. Take good care and don’t work so hard.”
After closing the balcony shutters, Don Sergio left the bedroom and met Niña Chucha, who had just come in from the street.
“You shouldn’t allow your mistress to work so hard,” he said to her dryly. “She’s getting ill.”
The mulattress gazed smilingly at the old man.
“Very good, sir,” she said.
“And the boy,—what’s he doing?”
“He’s studying,” answered Niña Chucha sarcastically, pointing to Manuel, who sat resting his elbows upon the dining-room table with his head in his hands.
And indeed he was devouring one of the serial issues of a novel by Tárrago y Mateos.