There Was
Even A Vulgarity In Him, Such As One Looks For In A Person Risen From
The Lower Orders But Does Not Expect In The Descendant Of An Ancient
And Once Lustrous Family, However Much Decayed And Impoverished, Or
Submerged.
Shortly afterwards a gossipy old native estanciero, who lived close by,
while sitting in our kitchen sipping mate, began
Talking freely about
his neighbour's lives and characters, and I told him I had felt
interested in the brothers de la Rosa; partly on account of the great
affection these two had for one another, which was like an ideal
friendship; and in part too on account of the ancient history of the
family they came from. I had met one of them, I told him, - Cyril - a
very fine fellow, but in some respects he was not exactly like my
preconceived idea of a de la Rosa.
"No, and he isn't one!" shouted the old fellow, with a great laugh; and
more than delighted at having a subject presented to him and at his
capture of a fresh listener, he proceeded to give me an intimate
history of the brothers.
The father, who was a fine and a lovable man, married early, and his
young wife died in giving birth to their only child - Ambrose. He did
not marry again: he was exceedingly fond of his child and was both
father and mother to it and kept it with him until the boy was about
nine years old, and then determined to send him to Buenos Ayres to give
him a year's schooling.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 16 of 244
Words from 4021 to 4284
of 66164
