The chauffeur needed two assistants to help him keep this flock of mastodons in order, but the proud owner thought only of the skill with which he had gotten the best of the salesmen, anxious to get such monuments out of their sight.
To his children he was always recommending simplicity and economy.

"We are not as rich as you suppose.

We own a good deal of property, but it produces a scanty income." And then, after refusing a domestic expenditure of two hundred francs, he would put five thousand into an unnecessary purchase just because it would mean a great loss to the seller.

Julio and his sister kept protesting to their mother, Dona Luisa--Chichi even going so far as to announce that she would never marry a man like her father.
"Hush, hush!" exclaimed the scandalized Creole.

"He has his little peculiarities, but he is very good.