THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY
her content with her work too soon. Uncle Pio never exactly beat her, but he resorted to a sarcasm that had terrors of its own.
At the close of a performance Camila would return to her dressing room to find Uncle Pio whistling nonchalantly in one corner. She would divine his attitude at once and cry angrily:
“Now what is it? Mother of God, Mother of God, what is it now?”
“Nothing, little pearl. My little Camila of Camilas, nothing.”
“There was something you didn’t like. Ugly fault-finding thing that you are. Come on now, what was it? Look, I’m ready.”
“No, little fish. Adorable morning star, I suppose you did as well as you could.”
The suggestion that she was a limited artist and that certain felicities would be forever closed to her never failed to make Camila frantic. She would burst into tears: “I wish I had never
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