All I ask is
a bit of advice."
"Speak, then, speak. I'm all attention," answered the old man, resting
an elbow upon the table.
Manuel, who was taking off the tablecloth, cocked his ears.
At that juncture one of the salesmen entered the dining-room, and
Roberto, who was about to say something, grew silent and looked
impertinently at the intruder. The student was an aristocratic type
with blond hair, thick and combed back, and moustache of glittering
white, like silver; his skin was somewhat tanned by the sun.
"Won't you continue?" asked Don Telmo.
"No," answered the student, staring at the salesman. "For I don't want
anybody to hear what I have to say."
"Come to my room, then," replied Don Telmo. "There we can talk
undisturbed. We'll have coffee up in my room. Manuel!" he ordered.
"Bring us two coffees."
Manuel, who was deeply interested in discovering what the student had
to say, dashed out into the street on his errand. He was more than a
quarter of an hour in returning with the coffee, and supposed that
Roberto by this time had finished his story.
He knocked at Don Telmo's door and was resolved to linger there as
long as possible, that he might catch all he could of the
conversation. He began to dust Don Telmo's lamp-table with a cloth.
"And how did you ascertain that," Don Telmo was asking, "if your
family didn't know it?"
"Quite by accident," answered the student.
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