He appeared at first to be as stout as
Morano, and he was nearly half a foot taller, but his stoutness
turned out to be sheer muscle. The broad man was clothed in old
brown leather and had blue eyes.
Now there was something about the poise of Rodriguez' young head
which gave him an air not unlike that which the King himself
sometimes wore when he went courting. It suited his noble sword
and his merry plume. When la Garda saw him they were all
politeness at once, and invited him to see the hanging, for which
Rodriguez thanked them with amplest courtesy.
"It is not a bull-fight," said the chief of la Garda almost
apologetically. But Rodriguez waved aside his deprecations and
declared himself charmed at the prospect of a hanging.
Bear with me, reader, while I champion a bad cause and seek to
palliate what is inexcusable. As we travel about the world on our
way through life we meet and pass here and there, in peace or in
war, other men, fellow-travellers: and sometimes there is no more
than time for a glance, eye to eye. And in that glance you see the
sort of man: and chiefly there are two sorts. The one sort always
brooding, always planning; mean, silent men, collecting properties
and money; keeping the law on their side, keeping everything on
their side; except women and heaven, and the late, leisurely
judgment of simple people: and the others merry folk, whose eyes
twinkle, whose money flies, who will sooner laugh than plan, who
seem to inherit rightfully the happiness that the others plot for,
and fail to come by with all their schemes.
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