Читать книгу Chata and Chinita. A Novel онлайн

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“Let us make it lucky,” said Chinita, daringly. “Let us say thirteen Aves and thirteen Pater Nosters for his soul.”

But Chata shook her head doubtfully, and started violently as a servant maid, grimy and ragged like all her clan, and panting with haste, thrust open the door, exclaiming,—

“Niña of my soul, your lady mother declares you are dead. Doña Feliz has searched all the house, and is wringing her hands with grief. Don Rafael has seized Pedro by the collar, and is mad with rage because he swears you have not passed the gate; and here I find you, with your white frock all stained with dirt, and that beggar brat filling your ears with her mad tales. The Saints defend us! Sometime the witch will fly off—as she came—no one knows where. But you, niña, come, come away!” and the excited woman dragged the truant reluctantly away; while Chinita, thrusting her tongue into her cheek, received the epithets of “beggar brat” and “witch” with a contempt which the gesture only, rather than any words, fluent as she was in plebeian repartee, could at that moment adequately express.