think me one of those who abused her father?”
“I don’t believe so. That young woman would know how to distinguish between individuals. She has already made inquiries, and now is no time for stolen sweets. Do you see? From that house coming this way are some poor women in need of help. Look, one of them is not able to creep further, and falls to the ground. Is it not possible that the Señorita Doña Mariquilla Candiola has also gone to care for the wounded at San Pablo or the Pilar?”
“I do not believe so.”
“Or perhaps where they are making cartridges?”
“I believe that still less. She would be in her house, and there is where I wish to go, Gabriel. You may go and see to the carrying of the wounded, or to the powder, or whatever you please, but I am going there!”
As he said this, Pirli presented himself to us in his friar’s habit, already torn and hanging in a thousand fragments, and on his head the French engineer’s helmet, badly battered, but