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SAN ANTONIO 209
hate you for jealousy if he were younger. And that—
ka, ka—preciosa—ka—every virtue—adoracién—”
His gentle and gallant heart inspired him to say even
more things, but these were consumed by his cough. I
put fresh embers into the brazier and put the brazier
into his bed before I went.
Next morning Beppa came into the kitchen and en-
gaged in a loud conversation with San Antonio and the
Holy Virgin, alternately lamenting and scolding.
There was something wrong again. At noon she came
pounding up the stairs:
“Now just think of it, Don Martin, there he is out
walking again and he can hardly stand on his legs for
illness. Jesús, Maria, what wretchedness!” I looked
out into the street and there was Don Pedro hobbling
along.
“And he didn’t even say good-by, not even to you!
He hasn’t said a word to me all day; simply lay in bed
and turned his back to me. And do you know why?
Just because I would not lie in bed with him. That is
the only time he doesn’t freeze. I breathed on his
back all night to keep it warm; and all morning I
heated bricks for him and put hot water into his bed-
warmer and embers into his brazier, and my bed-sheets
are all charred with them. But it’s all no use. What
misery, what misery!
“Since we discovered last year that he was not
seventy-one years old but eighty-one, he has been go-
ing down hill fast. But just for his sake I cannot lie in
bed with him all day if there is nothing wrong with me,
can 1? What would become of you and the house?
He began the business even yesterday as soon as he
got to bed. ‘Beppa,’ he said, ‘little one, aren’t you
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