"
"I can stop for a quarter of an hour. Let me
put your cloak in the other room. Shall I take
the basket, too?"
"Take care; those are new-laid eggs. Katie
brought them in from Monte Oliveto this morning.
There are some Christmas roses for you,
Signor Rivarez; I know you are fond of flowers."
She sat down beside the table and began clipping
the stalks of the flowers and arranging them
in a vase.
"Well, Rivarez," said Galli; "tell us the rest of
the puma-hunt story; you had just begun."
"Ah, yes! Galli was asking me about life in
South America, signora; and I was telling him
how I came to get my left arm spoiled. It was
in Peru. We had been wading a river on a puma-hunt,
and when I fired at the beast the powder
wouldn't go off; it had got splashed with water.
Naturally the puma didn't wait for me to rectify
that; and this is the result."
"That must have been a pleasant experience."
"Oh, not so bad! One must take the rough
with the smooth, of course; but it's a splendid
life on the whole.
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