Page:The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Grossett & Dunlap).pdf/149



N one of her letters (the XXIXth) the Marquesa de Montemayor tries to describe the impression that Uncle Pio “our aged Harlequin” made upon her: “I have been sitting all morning on the green balcony making you a pair of slippers, my soul,” she tells her daughter. ''“As the golden wire did not take up my whole attention I was able to follow the activity of a coterie of ants in the wall beside me. Somewhere behind the partition they were patiently destroying my house. Every three minutes a little workman would appear between two boards and drop a grain of wood upon the floor below. Then he would wave his antennae at me and back busily into his mysterious corridor. In the meantime various brothers and sisters of his were trotting''