Chapter I · (continued 2)
W. A. Gillespie translation
On arriving at his lodging he found a crowd of admirers in the lobby waiting to embrace him. His exploits, to judge from their hyperbolic language, had become quite different, so much did their conversation exaggerate and distort them, even during the short drive from the Plaza to the hotel.
Upstairs he found his room full of friends. Gentlemen who called him "tu" and who imitated the rustic speech of the peasantry, shepherds, herdsmen, and such like, slapping him on the back and saying, "You were splendid ... absolutely first class."
Gallardo freed himself from this warm reception, and went out into the passage with Garabato.
"Go and send off the telegram home. You know—'nothing new.'"
Garabato excused himself, he wished to help his master to undress. The hotel people would undertake to send off the wire.
"No: I want you to do it. I will wait.... There's another telegram too that you must send. You know for whom it is—for that lady, for Doña Sol.... Also 'nothing new.'"