"Ay, how 'diculous! What has got into me?... What were you thinking about, you lisping idiot?... You made a mistake, señor. I'll smash in your great goat face if you don't get out of here quicker'n a wink!..."
Enrique was wiping his nose with his handkerchief, murmuring:--
"_Diablo! Diablo!_ How you made it bleed!"
"I want to see you pack out of here, you rascal![29] you rrrascal! you rrrrrrrascal!" And each time that she repeated the word, she gave a more vigorous roll to the _r_, as though the preservation of her honor, endangered by the impudent lieutenant, depended on the proper pronunciation of this precious palatal.
"But first let me have a little water to wash my face.... I can't go out this way...."
"You'd better have some green lemon juice.... Clear out of here, you indecent wretch!"
The young woman stretched her right arm toward the door with so much dignity that it could not have been improved upon. Enrique, busy in cleaning off the blood and in looking with sorrow on the spots staining his handkerchief, could not appreciate the value of that haughty attitude which was worthy of Juno, Pallas, Cybele, or any other goddess of antiquity.
The mythological right hand, however, under the influence of compassion, was gradually beginning to bend, and after a few moments it was the very one that brought from the back room a jug full of water, and set it down on the marble table beside the fatal tumbler of milk which the "rascal" had but just drained.
Still it must not be imagined that this act in the least infringed on the dignity with which the handsome _chula_ had clothed herself: on the contrary, it made it more lustrous and illustrious. And while the lieutenant was washing his nose, carefully snuffling up the water, she, casting glances of Olympic scorn at his occiput and muttering threats, went and sat down once more at the door with her book in her hands.
The hemorrhage having been checked, after drying his face with his handkerchief the lieutenant left the shop; but as he passed by Manolita he had the impudence to say:--
"Good by, my beauty; I shall not lay it up against you."
It would be impossible for any one to conceive that Manolita lifted so much as her eyes, much more that she replied to him.
