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THE GYPSIES 249
would no longer hear of any sale. But he sold the
load of charcoal to the gypsies for a mere nothing—
in order not to be obliged to restore the donkey’s
burden.
You may makeva short cut by passing through the
great Cathedral. Most persons do this, and as a result
the soil on this side of the building is trodden flat. The
priests kneeling before the altar are obliged to turn
their heads every moment to the swish of rustling
petticoats.
Then comes a long narrow alley, overhung with
heavy balconies—it is the street of the correspondents.
The scribes sit at their desks breathing on their frozen
fingers; their work is not in demand. But at one of
the desks there is a young girl who is dictating: mil
besos y mil cariños, a thousand kisses and a thousand
caresses; all this wealth is to be enclosed in a single
envelope.
The middle of the street is an inaccessible morass,
while shoemakers, tailors, joiners and many other
craftsmen have established their workshops on the
sidewalk. A mason is stirring his mortar on the bare
pavement. You must step into it with your foot to
get by him, and one pedestrian after another goes
through this operation without a murmur. Here sits a
shoemaker who is taking the measure of a young girl’s
foot, as she places it in his lap. There sit a whole
family, devouring their meal, their feet resting in the
gutter, their breakfast served on the sidewalk. Up
against the house-wall, a man is changing his shirt
while a woman standing in front of him spreads her
petticoats in a desperate effort to screen him from on-
lookers.
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