To talk of hares was next door to heaven to Don Victor; as for Sanjurjo, to stand up to his waist in brambles and to start one was heaven itself.
"What a pity to lose such a day!" exclaimed Don Victor with a sigh as he looked through the window covered with dust.
"True," returned Sanjurjo with another sigh, "but I dare say the ground at Maribona is rather soft; there has been a good deal of rain the last few days."
"What does that matter?" said Don Mateo. "Now in this summer weather it soon gets dry, as the ground so readily absorbs the damp."
The lawyers looked at each other in dismay.
"Pépe la Esquila told me," he continued, "that the peasant folk have seen hares jumping about in Ladreda."
"Yes, we know," said Sanjurjo. "If it were not for some trifle to-day we should have gone off there," and he gave a sign of intelligence to Don Victor.
"Well, Pépe is going this morning with Fermo; I heard so yesterday evening."
The notaries looked at each other in alarm.
"What did I tell you, Sanjurjo?" exclaimed Don Victor.
"Well, I must confess the rogue has taken me in. Never mind, there will be some left. We will go to-morrow, you and I, Don Victor."
But the news had saddened them, and they preserved an obstinate silence. Excited voices and loud noises were audible in the chamber, while the sharp ting of the president's bell was constantly heard calling to order.
Don Mateo, feeling quite depressed at his inability to sustain the conversation, made another attempt with Sanjurjo.
"Well, man, I should not have thought you would have cared for sport with your lame leg."
"What, how? What are you thinking of? He runs like a greyhound," exclaimed Don Victor, with affectionate enthusiasm. "Directly he is on the track of a hare he ceases to be lame. And I say that he invented his lameness to excite pity. He is no more lame than you or I."
"If you could only make me well," returned Sanjurjo, smiling resignedly.
The joke put them all in good spirits. Don Victor recounted the feats of his friend on various occasions:
"One day he went on all fours so as to run better. That was a sight."
"What," queried Don Mateo in astonishment, "on all fours?"
"Yes, it is a fact," returned Sanjurjo, laughing, and adding that he had learned to run like that as a child, when his lameness was more pronounced, and prevented him being a match for his playfellows. Then he, on his side, spoke of Don Victor as a lazy fellow, who would scan every blade of grass to avoid taking an unnecessary step, whereupon Don Victor joined in the laugh against himself, saying that hares were not only started with the legs, but with the eyes as well.