uptcy."

"Not Henrique Bleyle, but George Bleyle at the _Mercadinho_, and there
is no question of bankruptcy. For Heaven's sake don't say anything of
the kind!" She looked at me in the utmost confusion and with guilty
eyes; she had of course emphasized the fact that business was bad--as
it was in general at that time--merely in order to induce me to buy of
George Bleyle, since she feared she could not make me budge by speaking
only of the cheapness of his wares.

Now I gave her great pleasure by inquiring at exactly what prices she
had made her purchases, and by asking for advice of various sorts. I
did not get much profit from this; the effort to distinguish between
linen, cotton-warp linen, cotton, shirting, and _fil d'Ecosse_ caused
me something of a headache. But she was all joy and eagerness.

Then she had to use her iron while it was hot. She lifted one end of
the ironing board, drew a light calico gown over it like a ring, put
the board down again, and ironed, gradually letting the whole of the
gown travel across the board.

The shade in which I stood grew smaller, the heat penetrated markedly
nearer to me and awakened my daily desire to go to the city park and
sit in the shade of its giant trees and bamboo bushes. I lighted a
cigarette at one of the little glowing eyes of the charcoal flat-iron,
and started away.

"_Ate logo, senhor!_" said she, using a phrase that corresponds exactly
to the Rhenish "So long!" Since she did not know much Portuguese, she
took pleasure in seizing all opportunities to use the most current
expressions; but she used these with such perfect pronunciation that
you would suppose she had complete command of the language.

As was always the case, I was in a peaceful frame of mind when I left
her, I was filled with a sense of cosy comfort which gained all the
more piquancy because flavored with an infinitely delicate bitterness
that I could not understand. In a revery I strolled along through the
streets which, because the diminutive houses cast so little shadow,
became hotter every minute, and passed slowly out of the city.

When I looked up again, I had already passed through the great gate in
the wall and felt as though immersed in the more expansive and, from
the intermittent shade of shrubs and trees, more invigorating
atmosphere of the great park. I stood still and peered into the depth
of the garden through the silver-gray columns of two gigantic palms.
Thickly surrounded by