, now about East Angels, now about the
detention of the northern party all summer, owing to the long illness of
Mrs. Rutherford, "that majestic and distinguished lady."

The Senor Ruiz had had time to skirt round every subject, he knew,
Torres having paid his biweekly respects regularly now for eight long
months. Torres said that there was much "hidden congeniality" between
them; on the Senor Ruiz's side the congeniality was extremely well
hidden, so much so, indeed, that he had never been able to discover it.
But on Torres' side it was veritable, he had found that he could think
of Garda with especial comfort over there on quiet Patricio, in the
presence of a masculine mind so much resembling his own; and think of
her he did by the hour, answering with a bow and brief word or two now
and then the long despairing monologues of the Senor Ruiz, who, impelled
by his Spanish politeness to keep up the conversation, was often driven
into frenzy (concealed) by the length of time during which his visitor
remained seated opposite to him, stiff as a wooden statue, and almost
equally silent.

Because the poor senor could not move his legs very easily, Torres (on
much the same principle which induces people to elevate their voices
when speaking to a foreigner, as though he were deaf) always sat very
near him, so that their knees were not more than two inches apart. This
also enraged the Senor Ruiz, and on more than one occasion, when
fingering the cane which always stood beside him, he had come near to
bringing it down with violence upon the offending joints; the
unconscious Adolfo little knew how near he had come to a bone-breaking
occurrence of that sort.

"Two years," Torres was in the habit of saying to himself during these
Patricio meditations; "they were safe enough in putting off the
verification of their impossible gossip until then." The matter stood
arranged in his mind as follows: Mr. Wintup was an old man, he was older
than they knew; he was probably nearly forty. It was a pastime for him,
at that dull age, to amuse himself for a while with the _role_ of
father. And he filled it well, Torres had no fault to find with him
here; to the Cuban, Winthrop's manner fully took its place in the class
"parental;" it was at once too familiar and too devoid of ardor to
answer in the least to his idea of what the manner of "a suitor" should
be. The most rigid and distant respect covering every word and look, as
the winter snow co