"Look here," frowned the American, recovering his dignity, "can't you answer a simple question without making remarks?"
"Pues, was I making remarks? You told me you were reading a play!"
"Yes, you do make remarks! Damn it! you talk all the time! If you've got to chatter like that, beat it!"
She would not let go her patient, for fear he might really fall and hurt himself, but she was offended.
"Seguramente!" she snapped. "If I ever get you in bed, trust me, I'll never lift another finger to get you out! Caramba! after all I've done!" She seemed about to cry. "As for the señora, she is in the music-room, and when you rush in through this heat, all white and trembly, to read a play, I think you are crazy; that's what I think!"
"Well, damn what you think! Here, let go; I can walk without you!" He shook himself loose and walked on in weak irascibility.
The girl stood looking after him with angry tears in her eyes and much anxiety for his welfare as he passed through the transverse corridor and turned down the main hallway.
He moved more and more slowly past the old doors which lined the corridor. There were no guards in the passage; they had been drawn away, no doubt, by the fiesta. The palace seemed rather empty without them. He was thinking of this when the door of the music-room opened and a man stepped into the hallway. He stood holding the door ajar and looking back into the room. The drummer was surprised to see that it was Coronel Saturnino. The salesman had thought the colonel was in San Geronimo, but no doubt he had come to Canalejos for the fiesta. The expression on the officer's face struck Strawbridge. For once his look of satire had vanished, and it left exposed what must have been the real Saturnino beneath all his quips and mockeries. He was speaking through the door, in a low tone:
"When a man has only one desire in life, señora, would he not be a fool to sacrifice that! Why should he sacrifice it! Shall his one brief glimpse of existence be entirely empty?"
There came a gasp from the music-room, and Strawbridge caught the phrase, "But, Pancho, that is sacrilegious!"