noon Caesar was in the gallery in an arm-chair, with his feet high.
He felt melancholy and lazy, and was watching the clouds move across the
sky. Soon he heard steps, and saw Amparito with an old servant who had
been her nurse.

Caesar jumped up.

"What's the matter?" he exclaimed.

"I came to get something Laura forgot," said Amparito.

"She forgot something?" asked Caesar stupidly.

"Yes," replied Amparito; and added, addressing the old woman:

"Go see if there is a little glass box in Senorita Laura's room."

The old woman went out, and Amparito, looking at Caesar, who was on his
feet watching her nervously, said:

"Do you still hate me?"

"I?" exclaimed Caesar.

"Yes, you do hate me."

"I! I have never hated you.... Quite the contrary."

"Whenever you see me you get away, and just now you looked at me as
if you were terrified. Have you such a grudge against me for a joke I
played on you long ago?"

"I, a grudge! No. It is because I have the impression, Amparito, that
you want to upset my plans, to make game of me. Why do you?"

"Do you think I try to amuse myself by worrying you?"

"Yes."

"No, that isn't true. You don't think so."

"Then why this constant inclination to distress me, to poke fun at me?"

"I never poked fun at you."

"Then I have made a mistake.... I had come to think that you took some
interest in me."

"And so I did. I did take an interest in you, and I keep on taking an
interest in you."

"And why so?"

"Because I see that you are unhappy, and you are alone."

"Ah! You are sorry for me!" "Now you are offended. Yes, I am sorry for
you."

"Sorry!"

"Yes, sorry. Because I see that you despise everybody and despise
yourself, because you think people are bad, and that you are too, and to
me this seems so sad that it makes me pity you deeply."

Caesar began to walk up and down the gallery, trembling a little.

"I don't see why you say this to me," he murmured. "I am a morbid man,
with an ulcerated, wounded spirit.... I know that. But why say it to me?
Do you take pleasure in humiliating me?"

"No, Caesar," said Amparito, drawing near him. "You don't believe that I
take pleasure in humiliating you. No, you know well that I do not."

On saying this, Amparito burst into tears, and she had to lean against
the gallery window, to hide her face and dissemble her emotion.

Caesar took her hand, and as she did not turn her head, he seized her
other, too. She looked at him