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The old man protested feebly. Pelayo was mute for a minute, but Elisenda repeated herself and he realized the wisdom of what she said. He told her to take it home and to tell anyone who asked that it was one of his dirty uniforms. He said he would handle the old man. His wife stumbled up the embankment and back onto the road, and walked the rest of the way home looking over her shoulder and looking down when people, some of them neighbors, passed her. When she reached the village the neighbor woman intercepted her before she could go inside, to ask about the doctor�s murderous rates. When Pelayo returned home an hour after Elisenda. He assured her that no one would find the old man and even if they did he would not be telling any tales. They agreed that the next day they would go back to the doctor and tell him that they sold a boat and would buy the medicine, and basket of the kind of fine foods their child needed to eat. |
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The doctor did not question them as he smilingly gave Pelayo the prescription, and Elisenda bought a new basket and filled it with food at the market. They silently cheered their success. They hastened their way home to put the medicines to work, but they slowed at the bend in the road where they�d found the old man. There, they saw a familiar dying old man lying in the embankment along the road. Fear filled them both. Pelayo descended from the road and saw that the old man had a badly broken leg, a withered face, and a bag stuffed with money. Again, the old thing pleaded for help. From below Pelayo shouted at Elisenda to go home, and she ran as though something great and fearful was at her heals. Before she could enter her house the neighbor woman asked what she had bought at the market, and Elisenda shut the door in her face. She thought as hard as she could about the old man, and was certain that it was a blessing, and she wondered even if it had been delivered by the angel of her dreams. She considered that she might be a prophet of the lord, and planned to talk to Father Gonzaga soon. |
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