Description

As Rafael came up a dog began to bark at the end of the garden. Some hens that had been scratching about in sand of the drive, scampered off cackling with fright. The music stopped. A chair scraped as it was pushed back. The lady was rising to her feet. At the balcony a flowing gown of blue appeared; but all that Rafael saw was a pair of eyes -- green eyes, that seemed to fill the entire window with a flood of light. "Beppa! Beppina!" cried a firm, a warm, a sonorous, soprano voice. _"Apri la porta._ Open the door." And with a slight inclination of her splendid head of thick auburn hair that seemed to crown her with a helmet of old gold, she smiled to him with a friendly, somewhat mocking, intimacy: "Welcome, Rafaelito. I don't know why, but I was expecting you this afternoon. We have heard all about your triumphs; the music and the tumult reached even to our desert. My congratulations to the Honorable don Rafael Brull. Come right in, I _su señoría."_