So Ends The Story Of Our Nearest English Neighbour.
CHAPTER XI
A BREEDER OF PIEBALDS
La Tapera, a native estancia - Don Gregorio Gandara - His grotesque
appearance and strange laugh - Gandara's wife and her habits and pets -
My dislike of hairless dogs - Gandara's daughters - A pet ostrich - In
the peach orchard - Gandara's herds of piebald brood mares - His
masterful temper - His own saddle-horses - Creating a sensation at
gaucho gatherings - The younger daughter's lovers - Her marriage at our
house - The priest and the wedding breakfast - Demetria forsaken by her
husband.
When, standing by the front gate of our home, we looked out to the
north over the level plain and let our eyes rove west from the tall
Lombardy poplars of Casa Antigua, they presently rested on another
pile or island of trees, blue in the distance, marking the site of
another estancia house. This was the estancia called La Tapera, with
whose owner we also had friendly relations during all the years we
lived in that district. The owner was Don Gregorio Gandara, a native,
and like our nearest English neighbour, Mr. Royd, an enthusiast, and
was also like him in being the husband of a fat indolent wife who kept
parrots and other pet animals, and the father of two daughters. In
this case, too, there were no sons. There, however, all resemblance
ceased, since two men more unlike in their appearance, character, and
fortune it would not be easy to find. Don Gregorio was an
extraordinary person to look at; he had a round or barrel-shaped body,
short bow legs, and a big round head, which resembled a ball fashioned
out of a block of dark-coloured wood with a coarse human face and huge
ears rudely carved on it.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 168 of 355
Words from 46956 to 47248
of 98444
