"I did not think thou couldst be the ruin thou appeared to be."
"Having done such a thing there is a loneliness that cannot be borne," Pablo said to her quietly.
"That cannot be borne," she mocked him.
"That cannot be borne by thee for fifteen minutes."
"Do not mock me, woman.
I have come back."
"And thou art welcome," she said.
"Didst not hear me the first time?
Drink thy coffee and let us go.
So much theatre tires me."
"Is that coffee?" Pablo asked.
"Certainly," Fernando said.
"Give me some, Maria," Pablo said.
"How art thou?"
He did not look at her.
"Well," Maria told him and brought him a bowl of coffee.
"Do you want stew?"
Pablo shook his head.
"_No me gusta estar solo_," Pablo went on explaining to Pilar as though the others were not there.
"I do not like to be alone. _Sabes?_ Yesterday all day alone working for the good of all I was not lonely.
But last night. _Hombre!_ _Que mal lo pase!_"
"Thy predecessor the famous Judas Iscariot hanged himself," Pilar said.
"Don't talk to me that way, woman," Pablo said.
"Have you not seen?
I am back.
Don't talk of Judas nor nothing of that.
I am back."
"How are these people thee brought?" Pilar asked him.
"Hast brought anything worth bringing?"
"_Son buenos_," Pablo said.
He took a chance and looked at Pilar squarely, then looked away.
"_Buenos y bobos_.
Good ones and stupids.
Ready to die and all. _A tu gusto_.
According to thy taste.
The way you like them."
Pablo looked Pilar in the eyes again and this time he did not look away.
He kept on looking at her squarely with his small, redrimmed pig eyes.
"Thou," she said and her husky voice was fond again.
"Thou.
I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains."
"_Listo_," Pablo said, looking at her squarely and flatly now.
"I am ready for what the day brings."
"I believe thou art back," Pilar said to him.
"I believe it.
But, hombre, thou wert a long way gone."
"Lend me another swallow from thy bottle," Pablo said to Robert Jordan.
"And then let us be going."
39
In the dark they came up the hill through the timber to the narrow pass at the top.