“Be careful,?she exclaimed. “You’ll fall.?
“I just wanted to see you,?the foreigner murmured.
“Oh, all right,?she said. “But be careful, those tiles are rotten.?
The stranger’s face had a pained expression of stupor and he seemed to be battling silently against his primary instincts so as not to break up the mirage. Remedios the Beauty thought that he was suffering from the fear that the tiles would break and she bathed herself more quickly than usual so that the man would not be in danger. While she was pouring water from the, cistern she told him that the roof was in that state because she thought that the bed of leaves had been rotted by the rain and that was what was filling the bathroom with scorpions. The stranger thought that her small talk was a way of covering her complaisance, so that when she began to soap herself he gave into temptation and went a step further.
“Let me soap you,?he murmured.
“Thank you for your good intentions,?she said, “but my two hands are quite enough.?
“Even if it’s just your back,?the foreigner begged.
“That would be silly,?she said. “People never soap their backs.?
Then, while she was drying herself, the stranger begged her, with his eyes full of tears, to marry him. She answered him sincerely that she would never marry a man who was so simple that he had wasted almost an hour and even went without lunch just to see a woman taking a bath. Finally, when she put on her cassock, the man could not bear the proof that, indeed, she was not wearing anything underneath, as everyone had suspected, and he felt himself marked forever with the white-hot iron of that secret. Then he took two more tiles off in order to drop down into the bathroom.
“It’s very high,?she warned him in fright. “You’ll kill yourself!?