... But are you coming along with us or not?"
"No."
Senor Custodio's ideas had worked a strong influence upon Manuel;
but since, despite this, his adventurous instincts persisted, he
thought of going off to America, or becoming a sailor, or something
of that sort.
CHAPTER VIII
The Square--A Wedding in La Bombilla--The Asphalt Caldrons.
The betrothal of El Carnicerin and Justa was formally arranged, Senor
Custodio and his wife bathed in rose water, and only Manuel believed
that in the end the wedding would never take place.
El Carnicerin was all together too haughty and too much of a fine
fellow to marry the daughter of a ragdealer; Manuel imagined that now
the butcher's son would try to take advantage of his opportunity. But
for the present nothing authorized such malevolent suppositions.
El Carnicerin was generosity itself and showed delicate attentions to
his sweetheart's parents.
One summer day he invited the whole family and Manuel to a bull fight.
Justa dressed up very fetchingly in her best to make a worthy
companion to her lover. Senor Custodio took out his finest apparel:
the new fedora, new although it was more than thirty years old; his
coat of doubled cloth, excellent for the boreal regions, and a cane
with a horn handle, bought in El Rastro; the ragdealer's wife wore a
flowered kerchief, while Manuel made a most ridiculous appearance in a
hat that was taken from the shop and protruded about a palm's length
before his eyes, a winter suit that suffocated him and a pair of tight
shoes.
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