Lechuguino, on
the other hand, was gaining ground: he had won over the girl's mother,
would treat the proof-reader and wait for Milagros where she worked,
accompanying her home.
One day, toward dusk, Manuel saw the pair near the foot of Embajadores
Street; Lechuguino minced along with his cloak thrown back across his
shoulder; she was huddled in her mantle; he was talking to her and she
was laughing.
"What's Leandro going to do when he finds out?" Manuel asked himself.
"No, I'm not going to tell him. Some witch of the neighbourhood will
see to it that he learns soon enough."
And thus it came about; before a month had passed, everybody in the
house knew that Milagros and Lechuguino were keeping company, that he
had given up the gay life in the dives of the city and was considering
the continuation of his father's business,--the sale of construction
material; he was going to settle down and lead the life of a
respectable member of the community.
While Leandro would be away working in the shoeshop, Lechuguino would
visit the proof-reader's family; he now saw Milagros with the full
consent of her parents.
Leandro was, or pretended to be, the only person unaware of Milagros'
new beau. Some mornings as the boy passed Senor Zurro's apartment on
the way down to the patio, he would encounter Encarna, who, catching
sight of him, would ask maliciously after Milagros, or else sing him a
tango which began:
_Of all the crazy deeds a man commits in his life,
The craziest is taking to himself a wife.
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