Justa touched his hump, for, as
is known, this brings good luck, whereupon El Conejo exploded with
merriment.
"Have you been lugged up again before the chief?" she asked.
"Oh, yes. Often ... hee-hee ..."
"What for?"
"Because the other day I started to shout in the street: 'Bargains!
Who'll buy Sagasta's umbrella, Kruger's hat, the Pope's urinal, a
syringe lost by a nun while she was talking with the sacristan! ..."
El Conejo trumpeted this at the top of his lungs and Justa held her
sides with laughter.
"And don't you sing mass any more the way you used to?"
"Oh, sure."
"Let's hear it, then."
The humpback had taken for his scandalous parody, the Preface of the
Mass, and for the sacred words he substituted others with which he
announced his business. He began to bellow:
"Who will sell me any ... slippers ... pants ... hempen sandals ...
old shoes ... secondhand clothes ... syringes ... urinals and even
chemises."
The hunchback's cries made Justa laugh nervously. El Conejo, after
repeating the Preface several times took up the melody of the
rogations and sang some strains in a high soprano, others in a basso
profundo:
"The high silk-hat" ... and instead of saying _Liberanos
domine_, he went on: "I'll buy for spot cash.... Your old vest
... will fetch a five-peseta piece.
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