"Whose picture is this?" he is reported to have asked.
"The fellow who killed her," they answered. This was exceedingly
strange, and it fascinated Manuel; many a time he had thought that
Milagros really loved Leandro; this fairly confirmed his conjectures.
During all that night Senor Ignacio, seated on a chair, wept without
cease; Vidal was scared through and through, as was Manuel. The
presence of death, seen so near, had terrorized the two boys.
And while inside the house everybody was crying, in the streets the
little girls were dancing around in a ring. And this contrast of
anguish and serenity, of grief and calm, imparted to Manuel a confused
sense of life. It must, he thought, be something exceedingly sad, and
something weirdly inscrutable.
PART THREE
CHAPTER I
Uncle Patas' Domestic Drama--The Bakery--Karl the Baker--The
Society of the Three.
The death of his son made such a deep impression upon Senor Ignacio
that he fell ill. He gave up working in the shop and as he showed no
improvement after two or three weeks, Leandra said to Manuel:
"See here: better be off to your mother's place, for I can't keep you
here."
Manuel returned to the lodging-house and Petra, through the
intercession of the landlady, procured her son a job as errand-boy at
a bread and vegetable stand situated upon the Plaza del Carmen.
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