"Bien ha ha!" nodded Don Beltran, not to be left behind.
"What wretched French Beltran speaks!" said Don Noé to his daughter, later.
Uncle Noé belonged to that vast majority, the great army of the unemployed. He loved the gaieties of the world, the enjoyments that cities bring in their train. But sometimes nature calls a halt. Nature had whispered her warning in Don Noé's ear, and he at once had thought of the plantation of San Isidro as the place to rest from a too lavish expenditure of various sorts. He had come to this remote place for a purpose, but he yawned as they rode along.
Beltran, proud of the beauties of San Isidro, pointed out its chief features as they proceeded. He turned, and said, still in French, to please Uncle Noé, and perhaps to show him that even at San Isidro all were not savages:
"There is much to be proud of, Uncle Noé. It is not a small place, when one knows it all."
"C'est vrai," again acquiesced Uncle Noé. "A la campagne il y a toujours beaucoup d'espace, beaucoup de tranquillité, beaucoup de verdure, et--" The rest of the sentence was lost on Beltran, but was whispered in the pink ear of Felisa, who laughed merrily.
"At what is my cousin laughing?" asked Beltran, turning, with a pleased smile. Uncle Noé did not answer. The words with which he had finished his sentence were, "_et beaucoup d'ennui_."
"You wanted to come," said Felisa, still laughing.
"Did you ever see such a God-forsaken place?" returned her father. "I had really forgotten how bad it was. Look at those ragged grooms. Imagine them in the Champs Elysées!"
"There can be no question of the Champs Elysées. How stupid you are, papa."
"And down in this valley! Just think of putting a house--I say, Beltran, who ever thought of putting your house down here in the valley?"
"It was my mother's wish," said Beltran. "I suppose that it was a mistake, but the river was further away in those days. It has changed its course somewhat, and encroached upon the casa, but we have never had any serious trouble from it. I shall build a house on the hill next year. The foundations are already laid." Don Beltran had said this for some years past. "Not that I think that I shall ever need it. When we have floods, the water makes but a shallow lake. It is soon gone."