Calico gowns, clear white or pink waists, they were all the gaiety of this solemnly sad place.

Beside Gracieuse was Pantchika Dargaignaratz, another fifteen year old blonde, who was engaged to Arrochkoa and would soon marry him, for he, being the son of a widow, had not to serve in the army.

And, criticizing the players, placing in lines on the granite rows of piled-up copper cents, they laughed, they whispered, in their chanted accent, with ends of syllables in "rra" or in "rrik," making the "r's" roll so sharply that one would have thought every instant sparrows were beating their wings in their mouths.
They also, the boys, were laughing, and they came frequently, under the pretext of resting, to sit among the girls.

These troubled and intimidated them three times more than the public, because they mocked so! Ramuntcho learned from his little betrothed something which he would not have dared to hope for: she had obtained her mother's permission to go to that festival of Erribiague, see the ball-game and visit that country, which she did not know.

It was agreed that she should go in a carriage, with Pantchika and Madame Dargaignaratz; and they would meet over there; perhaps it would be possible to return all together.
During the two weeks since their evening meetings had begun, this was the first time when he had had the opportunity to talk to her thus in the day-time and before the others--and their manner was different, more ceremonious apparently, with, beneath it, a very suave mystery.