CHAPTER IX
An Unlikely Tale--Manuel's Sisters--Life's Baffling Problems.
It was already the beginning of autumn; Leandro, on the advice of
Senor Ignacio, was living with his aunt on Aguila street; Milagros
continued keeping company with Lechuguino. Manuel gave up going with
Vidal and Bizco on their skirmishes and joined the company of
Rebolledo and the two Aristas.
The elder, Ariston, entertained him and frightened him out of his wits
with lugubrious tales of cemeteries and ghosts; the little Aristas
continued his gymnastic exercises; he had constructed a springboard by
placing a plank upon a heap of sand and there he practised his
death-defying leaps.
One day Alonso, Tabuenca's aid, appeared in the Corralon accompanied
by a woman and a little girl.
The woman seemed old and weary; the tot was long and thin and pale.
Don Alonso found them a place in a dingy corner of the small patio.
They brought with them a small bundle of clothes, a dirty poodle with
a very intelligent look, and a monkey tied to a chain; in a short
while they had to sell the monkey to some gipsies that lived in the
Quinta de Goya.
Don Alonso called Manuel and said to him:
"Run off and hunt up Don Roberto, and tell him that there's a woman
here named Rosa, and that she is or has been a circus acrobat; she
must be the one he's looking for.
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