"Were you sent to keep guard over me ?" "No, I came alone and of my own accord," answered Chiquita, "because I saw the light and fire.

I was tired of lying all cramped up in a corner, and keeping quiet, while those beastly men drank bottle after bottle of wine, and gorged themselves with the good things set before them.

I am so little, you know, so young and slender, that they pay no more attention to me than they would to a kitten asleep under the table.
While they were making a great noise I slipped quietly away unperceived.
The smell of the wine and the food sickened me.

I am used to the sweet perfume of the heather, and the pure resinous odour of the pines.

I cannot breathe in such an atmosphere as there is down below there." "And you were not afraid to wander alone, without a light, through the long, dark corridors, and the lonely, deserted rooms ?" "Chiquita does not know what it is to be afraid--her eyes can see in the dark, and her feet never stumble.