Page:Tales of Today.djvu/217

Rh "And how he cudgeled his brains with cogitating over different projects, and how he strove and toiled! He was near dashing his head against the wall of the tennis-ground at Saint Sebastian one day in his fury at having lost a game with the champion of Tolosa by a point. The betting was heavy. It would have been a nest-egg for him had he won. And Araquil was beaten by a point, by a miserable point, and the boys of Hernani with him! He tore his hair, he thumped himself on the forehead, he was beside himself with rage.

"He must have those two thousand douros, and he kept repeating to himself what Pepa had said to him:

Life with you or with no one, Araquil. But I shall obey my father while he is alive, and I shall always respect my father's wishes when he is dead.'

"He had reached such a state, poor Juan, that he thought of going far away. He had been told that the Basques who emigrated sometimes made their fortune out there at La Plata, in America. Yes, sir, it seems that the tennis-players of our country are able to pick up dollars by the handful at Buenos Ayres. The pretty house that you will see to the right of the road as you go back to Saint Sebastian belongs to a young fellow of Hernani who made his money in that way in the southern part of the New World. If it had not been for the idea of leaving Pepa, of never seeing her, even from a distance, at mass or at vespers, at the bull-fights, or even at her window when he passed the farmhouse, Araquil would certainly have gone away. Yes, he would have gone away. And then, a trapper or a gold-hunter, as the occasion offered, he would have sought wealth, since the old man had said to