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206 DAYS IN THE SUN
cutting off one of its ends. The whole house consisted
of an upstairs room and a kitchen downstairs, with a
dark little cubicle behind the kitchen. We rented the
upper room and did our own housekeeping.
On the day of our arrival, she was completely penni-
less and it was apparent that she had not had much to
eat during the week before. But the first thing she
did the day after we came was to go out and hire a
servant—a little old woman of seventy—who was to
take care of the rough work of the house, in return for
board and lodging. During the day, while Beppa was
noising about in the kitchen, the other old wretch, who
barely hung together at the joints, would sit in a reed-
chair bending over the brazier. She spent the nights
in a hallway somewhere in the neighborhood. She per-
mitted Beppa to call her tú but called her Señora
Beppa in return, and this was a sufficient regulation of
their social relation for them. So, from the first day,
we had two mouths to feed, sometimes even more.
Fortunately we did not feel it very perceptibly, for
Beppa did the shopping; though, in general, we found
her prices pretty high.
Beppa’s peculiar love-story was known by every one.
If it was not, it certainly was not my fault. She was
still Don Pedro’s beloved, although it had turned out
that he was ten years older than we had all thought on
our previous visit. At that time they lived together,
and Don Pedro would eat at his own house, where four
daughters and one son-in-law parasited on his meager
income. Now he had not even that home, but spent
his time with his daughters at Albaicin, and had a chest
complaint furthermore. He could no longer look after
the duties of his position in Alhambra; but if the sun
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