The music ceased, the men went away, the women returned, a few at
a time, and started a conversation among themselves, of which our
friends understood nothing. They were slandering some absent person.

"They look like the Chinamen of the _pansiteria!_" whispered Pecson.

"But, the cancan?" asked Makaraig.

"They're talking about the most suitable place to dance it," gravely
responded Sandoval.

"They look like the Chinamen of the _pansiteria_," repeated Pecson
in disgust.

A lady accompanied by her husband entered at that moment and took her
place in one of the two vacant boxes. She had the air of a queen and
gazed disdainfully at the whole house, as if to say, "I've come later
than all of you, you crowd of upstarts and provincials, I've come later
than you!" There are persons who go to the theater like the contestants
in a mule-race: the last one in, wins, and we know very sensible men
who would ascend the scaffold rather than enter a theater before the
first act. But the lady's triumph was of short duration--she caught
sight of the other box that was still empty, and began to scold her
better half, thus starting such a disturbance that many were annoyed.

"Ssh! Ssh!"

"The blockheads! As if they understood French!" remarked the lady,
gazing with supreme disdain in all directions, finally fixing her
attention on Juanito's box, whence she thought she had heard an