cuerda: the figure is of winding an old-style clock.
96
a que me traten con bondad, to their treating me with kindness: Alarcón admired the Spanish general O'Donnell greatly, and seems to have taken him as the prototype of Captain Veneno. Alarcón was with O'Donnell in Africa, and wrote, in the Diario de un testigo, in detail of O'Donnell's frank, abrupt, even harsh bearing. The wound in the head was possibly suggested also by a great scar on an Arab's head, of which Alarcón tells in the Diario.
97
He dicho, I have done, or I have spoken: at the end of a speech, like amen at the end of a prayer; it is the dixi of the Roman orators.
98
¡Jesús…! all the characters of this story use oaths and asseverations, except the servant girl. Translate here: Heavens!
99
condolido: this verb 'pity' repeated becomes comical; poor rhetoric. Like Ormulum's Alls iff þu drunnke waterrdrinnch, As if thou drankest a waterdrink.
100
entre las tres, we three, where entre is losing its prepositional force, as it has in entrambos, entre usted y yo. Rubén Darío says (Autobiografía, p. 61): Entre él y otros amigos me arreglaron mi viaje a Chile, He and other friends provided (money) for my trip to Chile. Entre ellos y los soldados… lo cogieron, they and the soldiers caught him.
101
¡vaya si pesa…!my but you are heavy! cf. ¡Vaya que susto me has dado!Oh, what a scare you gave me!Una carta de tu tío, y ¡vaya si es gorda!A letter from your uncle, and my but it's big! Alarcón in Moros y Cristianos. ¡Vaya si me lo llevaré!Surely I'll take it (the secret) to the grave with me!Moros y Cristianos. Novelas Cortas, Giese ed., p. 109.
102
amostazarse: from mostaza, mustard: cf. pepper, ginger, in familiar parlance.
103
tiráronle un tiro, they shot her a shot: cf. English "killed him dead"; poor rhetoric again.
104
perdone: asking him to pardon her for frightening her mother, seems far-fetched, a false note; but it does inform the captain of the facts in the case; que is omitted here as often with words like suplicar, pedir, rogar, etc.
105
os: this second person plural is not always familiar.
106
hazmerreír, make-me-laugh, laughing-stock; a whole sentence become a word, like hand-me-down for ready-made and like Hoosier (if from "Who-is-yer") and forget-me-not. Spanish has also corre-ve-i-dile, tattle-tale; va-i-ven, pendulum motion; gana-pierde, give-away (at checkers).
107
faltaba = faltaría: a common idiomatic use of the imperfect indicative for the conditional.
108
mismo: in mañana mismo, ahora mismo, the adverb is used as a neuter noun.
109
después de acostada, after you are in bed: very common usage; no suppressed word need be assumed. The form has become idiomatic. Cf. the English usage of certain localities: he wants in, he wants out, for he wants to get in, he wants to get out, where we no longer think of the omitted verb.
110
tila con flor de azahar, lime tea and orange flower, a soothing concoction for the nerves.
111
aunque Dios no quiera, even though God be unwilling: an allusion to the usual phrase "God willing", Deo volente. Lorenzo Dow said: "I shall preach, God willing; no, I will anyway".
112
Angustias: he hasn't heard her name yet; not in the story.
113
número…: the dots, puntos suspensivos, are read as tal, so-and-so.
114
Veneno, Venom: about like Spitfire, if it were for a woman.
115
el enviar, the sending: infinitives and past participles are an abundant source of nouns in Spanish.
116
Buenos días, Good day: much more usual at meeting or passing, and by day, than at leaving and at night, although it was of course, by this time, about four o'clock in the morning.
117
de demonio, devilish: this is the nearest Rosa comes to oaths. In the Diario, Alarcón speaks of the mil votos y ternos, thousand oaths and curses, of the soldiers.
118
de punta, on end: a fine example of de used to make an adverb; we use of similarly for time (of a morning, of Sundays); Spanish uses de for adverbs of time, place, or manner. Six of the clock, of necessity, born of woman, of a truth, said of old, live of milk alone, all of a sudden, in English are of a vanishing type.
119
cervata: usually only masculine cervato, but Rosa follows the general principle. Her háceme temblar is rather provincial for me hace.
120
como el dolor, as well as sorrow: our style would be rather sorrow as well as happiness. It is notable how often the order is reversed in Spanish, e.g. antes como después, before as afterwards, tarde o temprano, late or soon (i. e. sooner or later).
121
hallábase: Alarcón, as well as Rosa, puts the pronoun last.
122
A éste le había dado… por callar, He had taken to silence, he didn't feel like talking: dar (impersonal) for some other verb as often; cf. le dio por ahí, he (or she) took to that.
123
Cristo: a strong oath. Usually Cristo is covered by some innocent word beginning with the same sound, as we shall often see. Captain Veneno later says por Jesucristo vivo, 135, 20.
124
balazo de la frente, bullet wound in his forehead: in the Diario I, 168, Alarcón tells of a captive Moor who had a terrible scar in his forehead: nos mostró una larga cicatriz que le atravesaba toda la frente. ¿Cómo no moriste? – La bala se deslizó sobre el hueso, – respondió, He showed us a long scar which crossed his whole forehead. Why didn't it kill you? – The ball glanced on the bone, he answered.
