Soon he learned the life and miracles of every boarder and was ready
to talk back in outrageous fashion if they tried his patience.

Dona Violante and her daughters,--especially the old lady, showed a
great liking for the boy. The three women had now been living in the
house for several months; they paid little and when they couldn't pay
at all, they didn't. But they were easily satisfied. All three
occupied an inner room that opened onto the courtyard, whence came a
nauseating odour of fermented milk that escaped from the stable of the
ground floor.

The hole in which they lived was not large enough to move about in;
the room assigned to them by the landlady--in proportion to the size
of their rent and the insecurity of the payment--was a dark den
occupied by two narrow iron beds, between which, in the little space
left, was crammed a cot.

Here slept these gallant dames; by day they scoured all Madrid, and
spent their existence making arrangements with money-lenders, pawning
articles and taking them out of pawn.

The two young ladies, Celia and Irene, although they were mother and
daughter, passed for sisters. Dona Violante, in her better days, had
led the life of a petty courtesan and had succeeded in hoarding up a
tidy bit as provision against the winter of old age, when a former
patron convinced her that he had a remarkable combination for winning
a fortune at the Fronton. Dona Violante fell into the trap and her
patron left her without a centimo. Then Dona Violante went back to the
old life, became half blind and reached that lamentable state at which