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The wife's black eyes filled with tears as she told him to keep himself well bundled up and to think often of her. Tears quite blinded her. "What a good lass she is!" murmured Zureda. And as he recalled the poisonous doubt of a moment before, the man's ingenuous nobility felt shame. The life of Manolo Berlanga turned out to be pretty disreputable.
"Yes, and if he didn't," put in Berlanga, offering Zureda a glass of wine, "there'd be plenty more who would. How about that, Amadeo?" Zureda remained impassive. He gulped the wine at one swallow. Then he ordered a bottle for all hands. "Come on, now, I'll go you a game of mus," he challenged Berlanga. "Antolín, here, will be my partner." The silversmith accepted. "Go to it!" said he.
Her little high-heeled, pointed, patent-leather boots and her fresh-starched, rustling petticoats echoed her impatience. She went up to Berlanga, took him familiarly by the arm, and said: "I tell you, though, I'm going to pay half." The silversmith shook his head in denial. She added, positively: "That's the only way I'll go. Aren't we both going to have a good time?
The poor woman began to forget everything; and the few recollections she still retained grew so disjointed, so vague that they no longer were able to arouse any stimulating emotion in her. She had never really loved Berlanga. What she had felt for him had been only a kind of caprice, an unreasoning will o' the wisp passion; but this amorous dalliance had soon faded out.
Strong and well-molded they were, those arms, and under the cloth of her sleeves rolled up above the elbow, the flesh swelled exuberantly. "Hm! You haven't combed your hair, to-day," said Berlanga. She answered with a laugh one of those frankly voluptuous laughs that women with fine teeth enjoy. "You're right," said she. "You certainly notice everything. I didn't have time."
His eyes, used to penetrating dark horizons, seemed to grow calm. The two men were all alone. "I've brought you here," said the engineer, "either to kill you or have you kill me." Berlanga was pretty tipsy. Brave in his cups, he peered closely at the other. He kept his hands in the pockets of his coat. His brow was frowning; his chin was thrust out and aggressive.
Suddenly Berlanga exclaimed: "If Zureda and I weren't pals " Silence. The silversmith added, warming to the subject: "Rafaela, tell me the truth. Isn't it true that Amadeo stands in our way?" She peered closely at him, and afterward raised her handkerchief to her eyes. She gave him no other answer. And nothing more happened, just then.
XXII. Having done all these things in his banishment, my Cid returned to Castille, and the King received him well, and gave him the Castle of Duenas, and of Orcejon, and Ybia, and Campo, and Gana, and Berviesca, and Berlanga, with all their districts.
And, a few minutes later, they met at the indicated spot. "Let's go where nobody can see us," said the engineer. "I'll go anywhere you like," answered Berlanga. "Lead the way!" They crossed the river and came to the little fields out at Fuente de la Teja. The shadows were thicker there, under the trees. At a likely-looking spot the two men stopped. Zureda peered all about him.
When he laughed, the engineer would lean his massive shoulders against the back of the chair. Now and again, as if to underscore his bursts of merriment, he would deal the table shrewd blows. After this he would slowly emit his opinions; and if he had to advise Berlanga, he did it in a kind of paternal way, patiently, good-naturedly. When he was quite well again, Amadeo went back to work.
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