.... May I be
quite frank? Well, when I met you there at the Hermitage, I took you for
one of these local _senoritos_ who have such an easy time of it in town,
and so, look upon every woman they meet as their property for the
asking. Afterwards, when I saw you lurking about the house, my scorn
increased. 'Who does that little dandy think he is?' I said to myself.
And how Beppa and I laughed over it! I hadn't even noticed your face
and your figure: I hadn't realized how handsome you were...."

Leonora laughed at the thought of how angry she had been, and Rafael,
overwhelmed by such candor, likewise smiled to conceal his
embarrassment.

"But after what happened to-night I am fond of you ... as people are
fond of friends. I am alone here: the friendship of a good and noble boy
like yourself, capable of sacrifice for a woman whom he hardly knows, is
a very comforting thing to have. Besides, that much doesn't compromise
me. I am a bird of passage, you see; I have alighted here because I'm
tired, ill--I don't just know what's the matter, but deeply broken in
spirit anyhow. I need rest, just plain existence--a plunge into sweet
nothingness, where I can forget everything; and I gratefully accept your
friendship. Later on, when you least expect it, probably, I'll fly away.
The very first morning when I wake up, feel quite myself again--and hear
inside my head the song of the mischievous bird that has advised me to
do so many foolish things in my life--I'll pack up my trunk and take
flight! I'll drop you a line of course; I'll send you newspaper
clippings that speak of me, and you'll see you have a friend who does
not forget you and who sends you greetings from London, Saint
Petersburg, or New York--any one of the corners of this world which many
believe so large yet where I am unable to stir without encountering
things that bore me."

"May that moment be long delayed!" said Rafael. "May it never come!"

"Rash boy!" Leonora exclaimed. "You don't know me. If I were to stay
here very long, we'd finish by quarreling and coming to blows. At bottom
I hate men: I have always been their most terrible enemy."

Behind their backs they heard the rustle of the gown that Cupido was
dragging along behind him with absurd antics. He was coming to the
balcony with dona Pepita to see the sunrise.

Through its dense clouds the sky was beginning to shed a gray, wan
light, under which the vast, watery plain took on the whitish color of
absint