As I knew I had little chance in the hands of these two
incomprehensibles together, I begged him not to call his wife, but
to convey my adieus to her, and, in spite of his embraces and
protestations, I managed to get out of the room. But I had scarcely
reached the front door when I heard Enriquez's voice and his bounding
step on the stairs. In another moment his arm was round my neck.
"You must return on the instant! Mother of God! I haf forget, SHE haf
forget, WE all haf forget! But you have not seen him!"
"Seen whom?"
"El nino, the baby! You comprehend, pig! The criaturica, the leetle
child of ourselfs!"
"The baby?" I said confusedly. "IS there--is there a BABY?"
"You hear him?" said Enriquez, sending an appealing voice upward. "You
hear him, Urania? You comprehend. This beast of a leetle brother demands
if there ees one!"
"I beg your pardon," I said, hurriedly reascending the stairs. On the
landing I met Mrs. Saltillo, but as calm, composed, and precise as
her husband was extravagant and vehement. "It was an oversight of
Enriquez's," she said quietly, reentering the room with us; "and was all
the more strange, as the child was in the room with you all the time.
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