As regards her further characteristics, Salve soon perceived that she was addicted to drink.  She used to remain during the greater part of the day on the shady side of the house, or on the little veranda, with acachacas and water by her side, and incessantly smoking and rolling cigarettes; and she was often quite drunk as she mumbled her Ave Maria, and told her beads on her knees before going to bed in the evening.  Still the other inmates of the house appeared to have great respect for her; and it was evident that she held the threads of whatever business they might have on hand.

The senorita was out all the morning with the old mulatto woman, making purchases for the house, Federigo said, and informing herself as to what activity was being shown in their pursuit.  When she returned, she avoided addressing herself directly to Salve; and he observed that she handed over a quantity of money to her brother, which had the happy effect of bringing into his countenance a more cheerful look than it had hitherto worn that morning.

“What have you done to my sister?” Federigo asked one day, laughing; “you are not in her good graces.  She is dangerous,” he said, seriously; and added then, as if speculating on possibilities, “as long as you are in this house, at all events, you are safe.  But mind, you are warned.”

Federigo soon began to weary of their enforced confinement to the house, and in spite of his sister’s efforts to dissuade him, began to go out in the evenings, coming home very late, and in a gloomy, irritable humour—­evidently, from the casual remarks he let fall, having lost all his money at play.

The second morning of his stay in the house Salve had perceived that there was a want of money; and having heard the brother and sister quarrelling one day when both were in a bad humour, he thought it best to carry out, at the first convenient moment, the determination at which he had arrived, and handed over to Federigo what money he had, with the exception of a single silver piastre, saying, “That it was only right he should pay for his lodging and board.”

The money, though deprecatingly, was still accepted, and in the evening Federigo was out once more, his sister remaining at home.

She and Salve, on account of their ignorance of each other’s language, could not hold much conversation together, and Salve was rather glad of this wall of separation between them, as it left him more at his ease.  She had, however, recently looked more often at him with a sort of interest, and on several occasions had put questions to him through her brother.  Her range of ideas was apparently not extensive, as her questions always turned upon the same topic—­namely, what the women were like in his country; so that he soon came to know by heart all the Spanish terms which related to that subject.

They were out on the veranda together that evening, and as she went past his back while he was leaning over in his seat, she drew her hand as if by accident lightly through his hair.  If it had had the electricity of a cat’s, it would have given out a perfect shower of sparks, so enraged was he at the advance.