THE' 'WQ MANj:RO M MEXICO
25
gested
to
her, she ended by choosing a pair of sports shoes, mas–
'sive,
light~colored,
and with thick, lemon-yellow crepe rubber
soles. "Wouldn't a pair of black town shoes be better?" he
hazarded.
"No," replied Albina; "these are better, because they won't
spoil when you press my foot under the table." This was a joke
in which her gratitude found a way of expressing
itself.
But
Sergio blushed, partly because the assistant looked at
him
and
smiled.
Outside the shop, Albina rushed at him and kissed him
impetuously on the cheek, saying: "Thanks, I'm very grateful,
you know." Sergio replied discontentedly: "You ki$ed me on
the cheek just as
if
I'd been your father."
"Luciano's the only person I
k~
on the mouth."
In her new shoes that were too bright in color and too
heavy,
in
her brown coat stretched tight over her ample hips,
and carrying the old shoes in a parcel under her arm, Albina,
filled with joy and pride and poverty, was almost touching; and
Sergio, at her reply, comforted himself with the thought that
he had at any rate done a good deed.
On leaving the shop where she had bought her new shoes,
Albina went straight to a little cubby-hole of a shop near by
which specialized in the repair of old shoes. Standing amongst
piles of
~hapen,
dust-covered boots and shoes smelling mustily
of damp leather and feet, she explained her requirements, at
some length, to the cobbler. Then she bought some polish for
her new shoes and went out again.
They walked on through the same dark, sordid quarter,
from street to street, from one alley to another. Suddenly Sergio,
on looking around, saw on one side the colored glass door of a
brothel, on the other side a urinal, and, a little further on, the
entrance to a restaurant. Underfoot were the usual muddy,
glistening paving-stones, with cabbage-stalks scattered here and
