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First Love and Fascinating Spanish Stories - Alarcon · Literary Legends - Best Classic Fiction

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to find out
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  Speaker 1: how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. First
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  Speaker 1: Love and Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish life by Emilia
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  Speaker 1: Pardodo Bassan and others read by Alison Hester. Section one,
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  Speaker 1: First Love by Emilia Pardodo Bassan. How old was I then?
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  Speaker 1: Eleven or twelve years more? Probably thirteen? For before then
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  Speaker 1: is too early to be seriously in love. But I
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  Speaker 1: won't venture to be certain, considering that in southern countries
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  Speaker 1: the heart matures early. If that organ is to blame
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  Speaker 1: for such perturbations, if I do not remember well, when
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  Speaker 1: I can at least say exactly how my first love
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  Speaker 1: revealed itself. I was very fond as soon as my
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  Speaker 1: aunt had gone to church to perform her evening devotions,
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  Speaker 1: of slipping into her bedroom and rummaging her chest of drawers,
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  Speaker 1: which she kept in admirable order. Those drawers were to
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  Speaker 1: me a museum. In them, I always came across something
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  Speaker 1: rare or antique, which exhaled an archaic and mysterious scent,
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  Speaker 1: the aroma of sandalwood fans, which perfumed her white linen,
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  Speaker 1: pincushions of satin, now faded, knit ad mittens carefully wrapped
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  Speaker 1: in tissue paper, prints of saints, sewing materials, a reticule
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  Speaker 1: of blue velvet embroidered with bugles, an amber and silver
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  Speaker 1: rosary that would appear from the corners. I used to
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  Speaker 1: ponder over them and return them to their place. But
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  Speaker 1: one day I remember as well as if it were today,
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  Speaker 1: in the corner of the top drawer, and lying on
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  Speaker 1: some collars of old lace, I saw something gold glittering.
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  Speaker 1: I put in my hand unwittingly crumpled the lace and
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  Speaker 1: drew out a portrait, an ivory miniature about three inches
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  Speaker 1: long and a frame of gold. I was struck at
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  Speaker 1: first sight. A sunbeam streamed through the window and fell
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  Speaker 1: upon the alluring form, which seemed to wish to step
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  Speaker 1: out of its dark background and come towards me. It
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  Speaker 1: was the most lovely creature, such as I had never seen,
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  Speaker 1: except in the dreams of my adolescence. The lady of
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  Speaker 1: the portrait must have been some twenty odd years. She
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  Speaker 1: was no simple maiden, no half open rosebud, but a
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  Speaker 1: woman in the full resplendency of her beauty. Her face
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  Speaker 1: was oval but not too long, her lips full, half
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  Speaker 1: open and smiling. Her eyes cast a linguishing side glance,
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  Speaker 1: and she had a dimple on her chin, as if
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  Speaker 1: formed by the tip of Cupid's playful finger. Her head
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  Speaker 1: dress was strange but elegant. A compact group of curls
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  Speaker 1: plastered comb wise one over the other covered her temples,
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  Speaker 1: and a basket of braided hair rose on top of
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  Speaker 1: her head. This old fashioned headdress, which was trussed up
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  Speaker 1: from the nape of her neck, disclosed all the softness
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  Speaker 1: of her fresh, young throat, on which the dimple of
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  Speaker 1: her chin was reduplicated. More vaguely and delicately, as for
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  Speaker 1: the dress, I do not venture to consider whether our
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  Speaker 1: grandmothers were less modest than our wives are, or if
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  Speaker 1: the confessors of past times were more indulgent than those
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  Speaker 1: of the present. I am inclined to think the latter.
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  Speaker 1: For seventy years ago, women prided themselves upon being christian
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  Speaker 1: Like and devout, and would not have disobeyed the director
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  Speaker 1: of their conscience in so grave and important a matter.
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  Speaker 1: What is undeniable is that if in the presence day
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  Speaker 1: any lady were to present herself in the garb of
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  Speaker 1: the lady of the portrait, there would be a scandal
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  Speaker 1: from her waist, which began at her armpits. Upwards, she
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  Speaker 1: was only veiled by light folds of diaphanous gauls, which
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  Speaker 1: marked out, rather than covered, two mountains of snow, between
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  Speaker 1: which meandered a thread of pearls. With further lack of modesty,
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  Speaker 1: she stretched out two rounded arms worthy of Juno, ending
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  Speaker 1: in finely molded hands. When I say hands, I am
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  Speaker 1: not exact, for strictly speaking, only one hand could be seen,
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  Speaker 1: and that held a richly embroidered handkerchief. Even today I
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  Speaker 1: am astonished at the startling effect which the contemplation of
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  Speaker 1: that miniature produced upon me, and how I remained in ecstasy,
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  Speaker 1: scarcely breathing, devouring the portrait with my eyes. I had
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  Speaker 1: already seen here and there prints representing beautiful women. It
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  Speaker 1: often happened that in the illustrated papers, in the mythological
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  Speaker 1: engravings of our dining room, or in a shop window,
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  Speaker 1: that a beautiful face or a harmonious and graceful figure
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  Speaker 1: attracted my precociously artistic gaze. But the miniature encountered in
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  Speaker 1: my aunt's drawer, apart from its great beauty, appeared to
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  Speaker 1: me as if animated by a subtle and vital breath.
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  Speaker 1: You could see it was not the caprice of a painter,
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  Speaker 1: but the image of a real and actual person of
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  Speaker 1: flesh and blood. The warm and rich tone of the
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  Speaker 1: tents made you surmise that the blood was tepid beneath
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  Speaker 1: that mother of pearl skin. The lips were slightly parted
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  Speaker 1: to disclose the enameled teeth, and to complete the illusion,
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  Speaker 1: there ran around the frame a border of natural hair,
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  Speaker 1: chestnut and color, wavy and silky, which had grown on
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  Speaker 1: the temples of the original. As I have said, it
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  Speaker 1: was more than a copy. It was the reflection of
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  Speaker 1: a living person from whom I was only separated by
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  Speaker 1: a wall of glass. I seized it, breathed upon it,
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  Speaker 1: and it seemed to me that the warmth of the
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  Speaker 1: mysterious deity communicated itself to my lips and circulated through
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  Speaker 1: my veins. At this moment I heard footsteps in the corridor.
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  Speaker 1: It was my aunt, returning from her prayers. I heard
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  Speaker 1: her asthmatic cough and the dragging of her gouty feet.
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  Speaker 1: I had only just time to put the miniature into
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  Speaker 1: the drawer, shut it, and approached the window. Adopting an
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  Speaker 1: innocent and indifferent attitude, my aunt entered noisily, for the
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  Speaker 1: cold of the church had exasperated her katarrh, now chronic.
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  Speaker 1: Upon seeing me, her wrinkled eyes brightened, and giving me
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  Speaker 1: a friendly tap with her withered hand, she asked me
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  Speaker 1: if I had been turning over her drawars as usual. Then,
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  Speaker 1: with a chuckle, wait a bit, wait a bit, she added,
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  Speaker 1: I have something for you, something you will like, And
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  Speaker 1: she pulled out of her vast pocket a paper bag,
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  Speaker 1: and out of the bag three or four gum lozenges
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  Speaker 1: sticking together in a cake, which gave me a feeling
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  Speaker 1: of nausea. My aunt's appearance did not invite one to
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  Speaker 1: open one's mouth and devour these sweets. The course of
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  Speaker 1: her years, her loss of teeth, her eyes dimmed to
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  Speaker 1: an unusual degree, the sprouting of a mustache or bristles
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  Speaker 1: on her sunken in mouth which was three inches wide,
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  Speaker 1: dull gray locks fluttering above her sallow temples, a neck
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  Speaker 1: flaccid and livid as the crests of the turkey. When
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  Speaker 1: in good temper. In short, I did not take the
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  Speaker 1: lozenges uugh. A feeling of indignation, a manly protest rose
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  Speaker 1: in me, and I said, forcibly, I do not want it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want it. You don't want it? What a wonder?
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  Speaker 1: You are greedier than a cat. I am not a
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  Speaker 1: little boy, I exclaimed, drawing myself up and standing on tiptoes.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care for sweets. My aunt looked at me,
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  Speaker 1: half good humoredly and half ironically, and at last, giving
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  Speaker 1: way to the feeling of amusement, I caused her burst
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  Speaker 1: out laughing, by which she disfigured herself and exposed the
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  Speaker 1: horrible anatomy of her jaws. She laughed so heartily that
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  Speaker 1: her chin and nose meant hiding her lips and emphasizing
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  Speaker 1: two wrinkles, or rather two deep furrows and more than
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  Speaker 1: a dozen lines on her cheeks and eyelids. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, her head and body shook with laughter, until
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  Speaker 1: at last her cough began to interrupt the bursts, and
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  Speaker 1: between laughing and coughing, the old lady in volunteer carrily
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  Speaker 1: spluttered all over my face. Humiliated and full of disgust,
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  Speaker 1: I escaped rapidly, thence to my mother's room, where I
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  Speaker 1: washed myself with soap and water, and began to muse
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  Speaker 1: on the lady of the portrait. And from that day
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  Speaker 1: and hour I could not keep my thoughts from her.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as my aunt went out, to slip into
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  Speaker 1: her room, open the drawer, bring out the miniature, and
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  Speaker 1: lose myself in contemplation was the work of a minute.
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  Speaker 1: By dint of looking at it, I fancied that her
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  Speaker 1: languishing eyes, through the voluptuous veiling of her eyelashes, were
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  Speaker 1: fixed in mine, and that her white bosom heaved. I
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  Speaker 1: became ashamed to kiss her, imagining she would be annoyed
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  Speaker 1: at my audacity, and only pressed her to my heart
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  Speaker 1: or held her against my cheek. All my actions and
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  Speaker 1: thoughts referred to the lady. I behaved towards her with
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  Speaker 1: the most extraordinary refinement and super delicacy. Before entering my
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  Speaker 1: aunt's room and opening the longed forged oar, I washed,
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  Speaker 1: combed my hair and tidied myself, as I have seen
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  Speaker 1: as usually done before repairing to a love appointment. I
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  Speaker 1: often happened to meet in the street other boys of
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  Speaker 1: my age, very proud of their slip of a sweetheart,
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  Speaker 1: who would exultingly show me love letters, photographs, and flowers,
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  Speaker 1: and who asked me if I hadn't a sweetheart with
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  Speaker 1: whom to correspond. A feeling of inexplicable bashfulness tied my tongue,
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  Speaker 1: and I only replied with an enigmatic and haughty smile.
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  Speaker 1: And when they questioned me as to what I thought
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  Speaker 1: of the beauty of their little maidens, I would shrug
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  Speaker 1: my shoulders and disdainfully call them ugly mugs. One Sunday
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  Speaker 1: I went to play in the house of some little
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  Speaker 1: girl cousins, really very pretty, the eldest of whom was
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  Speaker 1: not yet fifteen. We were amusing ourselves looking into a stereoscope,
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  Speaker 1: when suddenly one of the little girls, the youngest, who
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  Speaker 1: counted twelve summers at most, secretly seized my hand, and,
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  Speaker 1: in some confusion and blushing as red as a brazier,
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  Speaker 1: whispered in my ear take this. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: I felt in the palm of my hand something soft
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  Speaker 1: and fresh, and saw that it was a rose bud
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  Speaker 1: with its green foliage. The little girl ran away, smiling
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  Speaker 1: and casting a side glance at me, But I, with
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  Speaker 1: a puritanism worthy of Joseph cried out, in my turn,
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  Speaker 1: take this, and I threw the rosebud at her nose,
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  Speaker 1: a rebuff which made her tearful and pettish with me
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  Speaker 1: the whole afternoon, and for which she has not pardoned
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  Speaker 1: me even now, though she is married and has three children.
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  Speaker 1: The two or three hours which my aunt spent morning
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  Speaker 1: and evening together at church being too short for my
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  Speaker 1: admiration of the entrancing portrait, I resolved at last to
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  Speaker 1: keep the miniature in my pocket, and went about all
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  Speaker 1: day hiding myself from people, just as if I had
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  Speaker 1: committed some crime. I fancied that the portrait, from the
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  Speaker 1: depth of its prison of cloth, could see all my actions.
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  Speaker 1: And I arrived at such a ridiculous extremity that if
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to scratch myself, pull up my sock, or
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  Speaker 1: do anything else not in keeping with the idealism of
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  Speaker 1: my chaste love, I drew out the miniature, put it
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  Speaker 1: in a safe place, and then considered myself free to
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  Speaker 1: do whatever I wanted. In fact, since I had accomplished
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  Speaker 1: the theft, there was no limit to my vagaries. At night,
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  Speaker 1: I hid it under the pillow and slept in an
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  Speaker 1: attitude of defense. The portrait remained near the wall side,
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  Speaker 1: and I awoke a thousand times, fearing somebody would come
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  Speaker 1: to bereave me of my treasure. At last, I drew
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  Speaker 1: it from beneath the pillow and slipped it between my
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  Speaker 1: night shirt and left breast, on which the following day
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  Speaker 1: could be seen the imprint of the chasing of the frame.
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  Speaker 1: The contact of the dear miniature gave me delicious dreams.
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  Speaker 1: The lady of the portrait, not in effigy, but in
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  Speaker 1: her natural size and proportions, alive, graceful, affable, beautiful, would
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  Speaker 1: come towards me to conduct me to her palace by
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  Speaker 1: a rapid and flying train. With sweet authority. She would
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  Speaker 1: make me sit on a stool at her feet, and
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  Speaker 1: would pass her beautifully molded hand over my head, caressing
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  Speaker 1: my brow, my eyes, my loose curls. I read to
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  Speaker 1: her out of a big missile, or played the lute,
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  Speaker 1: and she deigned to smile, thanking me for the pleasure
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  Speaker 1: which my reading and songs gave. At last, romantic reminiscences
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  Speaker 1: overflowed in my brain, and sometimes I was a page,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes a troubadour. With all these fanciful ideas, the
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  Speaker 1: fact is that I began to grow thin quite perceptibly,
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  Speaker 1: which was observed with great disquietude in my parents and
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  Speaker 1: my aunt. In this dangerous and critical age of development,
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  Speaker 1: everything is alarming, said my father, who used to read
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  Speaker 1: books of medicine and anxiously studied my dark eyelids, my
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  Speaker 1: dull eyes, my contracted and pale lips, and above all,
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  Speaker 1: the complete lack of appetite which had taken possession of me.
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  Speaker 1: Play Boy, eat boy, he would say to me, and
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  Speaker 1: I replied to him dejectedly, I don't feel inclined. They
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  Speaker 1: began to talk of distractions, offered to take me to
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  Speaker 1: the theater, stopped my studies, and gave me foaming new
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  Speaker 1: milk to drink. Afterwards, they poured cold water over my
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  Speaker 1: head and back to fortify my nerves. And I noticed
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  Speaker 1: that my father, at table or in the morning, when
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  Speaker 1: I went to his bedroom to bid him good morning,
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  Speaker 1: would gaze at me fixedly for some little time, and
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  Speaker 1: would sometimes pass his hand down my spine, feeling the vertebrae.
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  Speaker 1: I hypocritically lowered my eyes, resolved to die rather than
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  Speaker 1: confess my crime. As soon as I was free from
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  Speaker 1: the affectionate solicitude of my family. I found myself alone
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  Speaker 1: with my lady of the portrait. At last, to get
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  Speaker 1: nearer to her, I thought I would do away with
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  Speaker 1: the cold crystal. I trembled upon putting this into execution,
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  Speaker 1: but at last my love prevailed over the vague fear
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  Speaker 1: with which such a profanation filled me, and with skillful
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  Speaker 1: cunning I succeeded in pulling away the glass and exposing
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  Speaker 1: the ivory plate. I pressed my lips to the painting.
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  Speaker 1: I could scent the slight fragrance of the border of hair,
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  Speaker 1: and I imagined to myself even more realistically, that it
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  Speaker 1: was a living person whom I was grasping with my
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  Speaker 1: trembling hands. A feeling of faintness overpowered me, and I
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  Speaker 1: fell unconscious on the sofa, tightly holding the miniature. When
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  Speaker 1: I came to my senses, I saw my father, my mother,
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  Speaker 1: my aunt all bending anxiously over me. I read their
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  Speaker 1: terror and alarm in their faces. My father was feeling
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  Speaker 1: my pulse, shaking his head and murmuring, his pulse is
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  Speaker 1: nothing but a flutter, you can scarcely feel it. My aunt,
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  Speaker 1: with her claw like fingers, was trying to take the
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  Speaker 1: portrait from me, and I was mechanically hiding it and
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  Speaker 1: grasping it more firmly. But my dear boy, let go,
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  Speaker 1: you were spoiling it, she exclaimed. Don't you see you
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  Speaker 1: were smudging it. I'm not scolding you, my dear. I
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  Speaker 1: will show it to you as often as you'd like,
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  Speaker 1: but don't destroy it. Let go, you are injuring it.
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  Speaker 1: Let him have it, begged my mother. The boy is
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  Speaker 1: not well of all things to ask, replied the old maid.
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  Speaker 1: Let him have it. And who will paint another like this?
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  Speaker 1: Or make me as I was then? Today? Nobody paints miniatures.
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  Speaker 1: It is a thing of the past, and I also
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  Speaker 1: am a thing of the past. And I am not
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  Speaker 1: what is represented there. My eyes dilated with horror. My
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  Speaker 1: fingers released their hold on the picture. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how I was able to articulate you the portrait is you.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you think I am as pretty? Now? Boy bah
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  Speaker 1: One is better looking at twenty three at than at
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  Speaker 1: you don't know what for I have forgotten how old
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  Speaker 1: I am. My head drooped and I almost fainted again. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: my father lifted me in his arms onto the bed
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  Speaker 1: and made me swallow some tablespoonfuls of port. I recovered
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  Speaker 1: very quickly and never wished to enter my aunt's room again.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: End of Section one, First Love read by Alison Hester
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of Athens, Georgia. Section two of First Love and other
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Fascinating Stories of Spanish life and Andalusian Duel by Saraphin
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Estebanez Calderon. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Read by Alison Hester in Athens, Georgia.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Through the little square of Saint Anna, towards a certain
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  Speaker 2: tavern where the best wine is to be quaffed. In Seville.
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  Speaker 2: There walked in measured steps, two men whose demeanor clearly
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  Speaker 2: manifested the soil which gave them birth. He who walked
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the street, taller than the other
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  Speaker 2: by a bout of finger's length, sported with affected carelessness,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the wide slouched hat of acia with tassels of glass
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: beads and a ribbon as black as his sins. He
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: wore his cloak gathered under his left arm, the right,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: emerging from a turquoise lining, exposed the Merino lamb skim
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: with silver clasps, the herdsman's boots white with Turkish buttons,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: the breeches gleaming red from below the cloak and covering
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: the knee, and above all, his strong and robust appearance,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: dark curly hair, and eye like red hot coal, proclaimed
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  Speaker 2: at a distance that all this combination belonged to one
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: of those men who put an end to horses between
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  Speaker 2: their knees and tire out the bowl with their lance.
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  Speaker 2: He walked on, arguing with his companion, who was rather
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: spare than prodigal in his person, but marvelously lithe and supple.
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  Speaker 2: The latter was shod with low shoes. Garters united the
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  Speaker 2: stockings to the light blue breeches. The waistcoat was cane colored,
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  Speaker 2: his sash light green, and jaunty shoulder knots, lappets and
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: rows of buttons ornamented the carmelite jacket, the open cloak,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: the hat drawn over his ear, his short, clean steps,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: and the manifestation in all his limbs and movements of
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: agility and elasticity beyond trial, plainly showed that in the arena,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: carmine cloth in hand, he would mock at the most
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: frenzied of Harama bulls or the best horned beasts from
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: eutrera I, who adore and die for such people, though
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the compliment be not returned, went slowly in the wake
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  Speaker 2: of their worships, and, unable to restrain myself, entered with
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: them the same tavern, or rather eating house, since there
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: they serve certain provocatives as well as wine, and I,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: as my readers perceive, love to call things by their
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: right name, I entered and sat down at once, and
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: in such a manner as to not interrupt Oliver and Roland,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and that they might not notice me. When I saw that,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: as if believing themselves alone, they threw their arms with
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: an amicable gesture round each other's necks, and thus began
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: their discourse. Bulpette said the taller, Now that we are
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: going to meet each other, knife in hand, you hear
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: I there one two on your guard, Triz traz have
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: that take this and call it what you like. Let
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: us first drain a tankard to the music and measure
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: of some songs. Signor Balbeja, plied Pulpette, drawing his face
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: aside and spitting it with the greatest neatness, and poultrotud
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: toward his shoe. I am not the kind of man
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: either for La Gorga or other similar earthly matters, or
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: because a steel tongue is sheathed in my body or
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: my weazened slit, or for any other such trifle to
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: be provoked or vexed with such a friend as Valveja.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Let the wine be brought, and then we will sing,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: and afterwards blood, blood to the hilt. The order was given,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: they clinked glasses, and, looking at one another, sang a
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: civilian song. This done, they threw off their cloaks with
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: an easy grace, and unsheathed their knives with which to
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: prick one another, the one Flemish with a white haft,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: the other from Guadiq's, with a guard to the hilt,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: both blades dazzling in their brightness, and sharpened and ground
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: for operating upon cataracts, much less ripping up bellies and bowels.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: The two had already cleft the air several times with
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: the said lancets, their cloak wound round their left arm,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: first drawing closer than back, now more boldly and in bounds.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: When Bobette hoisted the flag for parley and said bowed, Baha,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: my friend, I only beg you to do me the favor,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: not to fan my face with quilon your knife. Since
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: a slash might use it so ill that my mother,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: who bore.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Me would not know me.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: And I should not like to be considered ugly. Neither
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: is it right to mar and destroy what God made
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: in his likeness, agreed, replied Balveja. I will aim lower,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: except accept my stomach also, for I was ever a
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: friend to cleanliness, and I should not like to see
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: myself fouled in such a bad way. If your knife
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: and arm played havoc with my liver and intestines, well,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I will strike higher. But let us go on. Take
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: care of my chest it was always weak. Then just
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: tell me, friend, where am I to sound or tap?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: You, My dear.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Balveja, there's always plenty of time and space to hack
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: at a man. I have here on my left arm,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: a wind of which you can make meat as much
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: as you'd like. Here goes for it, said Balbea, and
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: he hurled himself like an arrow. The other warded off
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the thrust with his cloak, and both, like skillful penmen,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: began tracing ss'es and signatures in the air with dashes
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: and flourishes, without, however, raising a particle of skin. I
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: do not know what would have been the end of
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: this onslaught, since my venerable, dry and shriveled person was
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: not suitable for forming by a point of exclamation between
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: two combatants and the tavern keeper troubled so little about
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: what was happening that he drowned the stamping of their
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: feet and clatter of the tumbling stools and utensils by
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: scraping street music on a guitar as loud as he could. Otherwise,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: he was as calm as if he were entertaining two
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: angels instead of two devils incarnate. I do not know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: I repeat how this scene would have ended when there
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: crossed the threshold a parsonage who came to take a
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: part in the development of the drama. There entered, I say,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: a woman of twenty to twenty two years of age,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: diminutive in body, superlative in audacity and grace, neat and
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: clean hose and shoes, short black flounced petticoat, a linked
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: girl head dress or mantilla of fringed taffeta, caught together
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: at the nape of her neck, and a corner of
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: it over her shoulder. As she passed before my eyes
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: with swaying hips, arms akimbo and moving her head to
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: and fro as she looked about her on all sides.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Seeing her, the tavern keeper dropped his instrument, and I
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: was overtaken by perturbation such as I had not experienced
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: for thirty years. I am, after all, only flesh and blood.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: But without halting for such lay figures, she advanced to
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: the field of battle. There was a lively to do here.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Don Pubette and Don Balbeja, when they saw Dougna Gordhaf
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: appear first cause of the disturbance and future prize for
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: the victor increased their fiends, flourishes, curvets, onsets, crouching and
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: bounds all. However, without touching a hair our, Helen witnessed
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: in silence for a long time the scene in history,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: with that feminine pleasure which the daughters of Eve and
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Joy at such critical moments. But gradually her pretty brow
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: clouded over, until drawing from her delicate ear not a
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: flower or an earring, but the stump of a cigar.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: She hurled it amidst the jousters. Not even Charles the
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Fifths came in the last duel in Spain produced such
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: favorable effects. Both came forward immediately with formal respect and each,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: by reason and discomposure of his person and clothes, presumed
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: to urge a title by which to recommend himself to
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the fair. With the flounces, she, as though pensive, was
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: going over the passage of arms in her mind, and then,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: with firm and confident resolution, spoke, thus, and is this
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: a fair for me? Who else should it be for?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Since I? Since nobody, they replied in the same breath. Listen, gentlemen,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: said she for females such as I and my parts
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: of my charms and descent, daughter of La Gatusa, niece
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of La Menuez, and granddaughter of La Astrosa. Know that
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: there are neither packs, norts, nor any such futile things,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: nor are any of them worth a farting. And when
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: men challenge each other, let the knife do its work
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: and the red blood flow, so as not to have
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: my mother's daughter present without giving her the pleasure of
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: snapping her fingers in the face of the other. If
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you pretend you are fighting for me, it's a lie.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: You are wholly mistaken, and that not by halves. I
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: love neither of you. Mina Lorios of Zapha is to
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: my taste, and he and I look upon you with
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: scorn and contempt. Goodbye, my braves, and if you like,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: call my man to account. She spoke, spat smoothed the
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: saliva with the point of her shoe, looking Popette and
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Balveja full in the face, and went out with the
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: same expressive movements with which she entered. The two unvarnished
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: braggarts follow the Loris Donna and Gorra with their eyes,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: and then, with a despicable gesture, drew their knives across
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: their sleeve, as though wiping off the blood there might
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: have been. Sheathed them at one and at the same time,
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: and said, together through women, the world was lost. Through
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: a woman, Spain was lost. But it has never been known,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: nor do ballads relate, nor the blind beggars sing, nor
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: is it heard in the square or markets that two
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: valiant men killed each other for another lover. Give me
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: that fist, Don blupete your hand, don balbeja. They spoke
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: and strode out into the street, the best friends in
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: the world, leaving me all amazed at such whimsicality. End
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Section two of First Love and Other Fascinating Stories of
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Spanish Life, read by Alison Hester and Athens George Yah.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Section three of First Love and other fascinating stories of
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Spanish life. Marquita the Bald by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. This
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Read by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia, Section three, Marquita
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the Bald. It is as sorry a matter to use
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: words of whose meaning one is ignorant, as it is
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a blemish for a man of sense to speak of
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: what he knows nothing about. I say this to those
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: of you who may have the present story in your hands.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: However often you may have happened to have heard Marquita
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: de Bald mentioned, and I swear by my doublet that
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you shall soon know who Marquisa the Bald was, as
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: well as I know who ate the Christmas Turkey. Setting
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: aside the surmise that it certainly must have been a mouth,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I desire therefore to enlighten your ignorance of the subject,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and beg to inform you that the said noted Maria
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Marquita is a diminutive of Maria. Was born in the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: district of Segovia and in the town of San Garcia,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the which town is famed for the beauty of the maidens.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Reared within its walls, who for the most part have
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: such gentle and lovely faces, that I may behold such
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: around me at the hour of my death. Maria's father
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: was an honest farmer by name Juan Lanas, a Christian,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: old man and much beloved, who had inherited no mean
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: estate from his forefathers, though with but little wit in
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: his crown, a lack of which was the cause of
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: much calamity to both the father and the daughter. For
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: in the times to which we have attained, God forgive
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: me if it is not necessary to have more of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the knave than of the fool in one's composition. Now
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: it came to pass that Juan Lanas, for the castigation
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of his sins, must needs commit himself to a lawsuit
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: with one of his neighbors about a vine stock which
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: was worth about fifty maravedis. And Juan was in the right,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: and the judges gave the verdict in his favor, so
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: that he won his case, excepting that the suit lasted
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: no less than ten years and the costs amounted to
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: nothing less than fifty thousand maravedez, not to speak of
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: a disease of the eyes, which after all was over
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: left him blind when he found himself with diminished property
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: and without his eyesight, in sorrow and disgust, he turned
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: into money such part of his patrimony as sufficed to
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: rid him of the hungry, heard of scriveners and lawyers,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and took his way to Toledo with his daughter, who
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: was already entering upon her sixteenth year, and had matured
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: into one of the most beautiful, graceful, and lovable damsels
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to be found throughout all Castile and the kingdoms beyond.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: For she was white as the lily, and red like
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the rose, straight and tall of stature, and slender in
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: the waist, with fair shapely hips. And again her foot
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and hand were plump and small to a marvel. And
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: she possessed a head of hair which reached to her knees.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: For I knew the widow Sarmiento, who was their housekeeper,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and she told me how she could scarcely clasp Marquita's
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: hair with both hands, and that she could not comb
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the hair unless Maria stood up and the housekeeper mounted
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: on a footstool, For if Maria sat down, the long
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: tresses swept the ground, and therefore became all entangled, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: do not imagine her beauty and grace being such that
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: she sinned greatly in pride and levity, as is the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: want of girls in this age. She was as humble
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: as a cloistered lay sister, and as silent as if
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: she were not a woman, and patient as the sucking lamb,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: and industrious as the ant clean as the ermine, and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: pure as a saint of those times in which, by
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the grace of the most high saintly women were born
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: into the world. But I must confide to you in
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: friendship that our marquita was not a little vain about
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: her hair, and loved to display it. And for this
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: reason now in the streets now, when on a visit, now,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: when at Mass, it is said she used to subtly
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: loosen her mantilla so that her tresses streamed down her back,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the while feigning forgetfulness and carelessness. She never wore a hood,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: for she said it annoyed her and choked her. And
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: every time that her father reproached her for some deed
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: deserving of punishment, and threatened to cut off her hair,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I warrant you she suffered three times more than after
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: a lash from the whip, and would then be good
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: for three weeks successively, so much so that Juan Lanas,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: perceiving her amendment, would laugh under his cloak, and when
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: saying his say to gossips, would tell them that his daughter,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: like the other saint of Sicily, would reach Heaven by
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: her hair. Having read so far, you must now know
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: that Juan Lanas, the blind man, with the change of
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: district and dwelling, did not change his judgment. And if
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: he was crack brained at San Garcia, he remained crack
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: brained at Toledo, consuming in this resort his money upon
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: worthless drugs and quacks, which did not cure his blindness,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and impoverished him more and more every day, so that
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: if his daughter had not been so dexterous with her
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: fingers in making embroidering garments of linen, wool and silk,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I promise you that this miserable wand would have had
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: to go for more than four Sundays without a clean
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: shirt to put on or a mouthful to eat, unless
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: he had begged it from door to door. The years
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: passed by to find Maria every day more beautiful, and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: her father every day more blind and more desirous to see,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: until his affliction and trouble took such forcible possession of
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: his breast and mind that Maria saw as clear as
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: daylight that if her father did not recover his sight,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: he would die of grief. Maria thereupon straightway took her
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: father and led him to the house of an Arabian
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: physician of great learning dwelt at Toledo and told the
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: more to see if there were any cure for the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: old man's sight. The Arabian examined and touched Juan and
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: made this and that experiment with him, and everything prospered
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: in that the physician swore great oats by the heel
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: bone of Mohammed, that there was a complete certainty of
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: curing Juan and making him to see his daughter again,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: if only he, the physician, were paid for the cure
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: with five hundred maravedis all in gold. A sad termination
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: for such a welcome beginning for the two unhappy creatures.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Juan and Maria had neither Maravedi nor Corto in the
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: money box. So they went since all downcast, and Maria
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: never ceased praying to his Holiness Saint John and his
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Holiness Saint James, the patron Saint of Spain, to repair
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: their assistance in this sad predicament. In what way, conjectured
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: she inwardly, In what way can I raise five hundred
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: maravedis to be quits with the moor, who will give
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: back his sight to my poor old father? All I
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: have it, I am a pretty maid and suitors. Innumerable
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: commoners and nobles pay their addresses and compliments to me,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: But all are trifling youths, who only care for love making,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: and who seek light o'er the loves rather than spouses.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: According to the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding that opposite our house lives the sword cutler, Master Palomo,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: who is always looking at me and never speaks to me,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and the Virgin assists me. He appears a man of
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: very good condition for a husband. But what maiden, unless
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: she were cross eyed or hunchbacked, could like a man
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: with such a flat nose, with that skin the color
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: of a ripe date, with those eyes like a dead calf's,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and with those huge hands, which are more like the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: paws of a wild beast than the belongings of a person,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: who with them should softly caress the woman whom Destiny
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: bestows upon him for a companion. Tis said that he
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: is no drunkard, nor a cudgler, nor dahlier with women,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: nor a liar, and that he is besides possessed of
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: much property and very rich. Pity tis that one who
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: was so ugly and stiff necked should unite such parts,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: thus turning the matter over and over in her mind. Maria,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: together with Wand, reached their home, where was awaiting them
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: and a squire in a long mourning robe, who told
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Maria that the aunt of the mayor of the city
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: had died in an honest estate and in the flower
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: of her age, for she had not yet completed her
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: seventy years, and that the obsequies of this sexagenarian damsel
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: were to be performed the following day, on which occasion
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: her coffin would be carried to the church by the maidens,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and he was to come and ask Maria if she
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: would please be one of the bearers of the dead woman,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: for which she would receive a white robe and to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: eat and ducot and thanks. Into the bargain. Maria, since
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: she was a well brought up maid, replied that if
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: it seemed well to her father, it would also seem
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: well to her. Juan accepted, and Maria was rejoiced to
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: be able to make a display of her hair. For
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: it is well known that the maidens who bear one
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: another to the grave walk with dishoveled locks. And when
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: on the morrow the tiring women of the Mayress arrayed
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: in a robe, white as the driven snow and fine
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: as the skin of an onion, and when they girt
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: her slender waist with a sash of crimson silk, the
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: ends of which hung down to the broad hem of
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the skirt, and when they crowned her smooth and white
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: forehead with a wreath of white flowers, I warrant you that,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: what with the robe and the sash, and the wreath,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: and the beautiful streaming hair, and her lovely countenance and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: gracious mien, she seemed no female formed of flesh and blood,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: but a superhuman creature or blessed resident of those shining
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: circles in which dwell the celestial hierarchies. The mayor and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the other mourners stepped forth to see her, and all
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: unceasingly praised God, who was pleased to perform such miracles
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: for the consolation and solace of those living in this world.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: And there, in a corner of the hall, motionless, like
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: a heap of broken stones, stood one of the mutes,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: with the hood of his long cloak covering his head,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: so that nothing could be seen but his eyes, the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: which he kept fixed on the fair damsel. The latter
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: modestly lowered her eyes to the ground, with her head
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a little bent and her cheeks red for bashfulness, although
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: it pleased her no little to hear the praises of
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: her beauty. At this moment a screen was pushed aside,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: and there began to appear a huge bulk of petticoats,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: which was nothing less than the person for the Mayoress,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: for she was with child and drawing near to her time.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: And when she saw Maria, she started, opened her eyes
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: a hand's breath wide, bit her lips, and called hurriedly
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: for her husband. They stepped aside for a good while,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: and then hide them thence, and when when they returned,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the mutes and maidens had all gone. While they were
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: burying the defunct lady, I must tell you, curious readers,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: that the Mayor and Mayoress had been married for many
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: years without having any children, and they longed for them
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: like the countrymen for rain in the month of May.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: And at last her hour of bliss came to the Mayoress,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: to the great content of her husband. Now it was
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: whispered that the said lady had always been somewhat capricious.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Judge for yourselves what she would be now in the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: time of her pregnancy, And as she was already on
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the way to fifty, she was more than mediocrely bald
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and hairless. And on these very same days had commissioned
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: a woman barber who lived in the odor of Witchcraft,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: to prepare for her some false hair. But it was
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: not to be that of a dead woman, for the
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Mayoress said very sensibly that if the hare belonged to
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: a dead woman who rejoiced in supreme glory, or was
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: suffering for her sins in purgatory, it would be profanation
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to wear any pledge of theirs, And if they were
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: in hell, it was a terrible thing to wear on
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: one's person relics of one of the damned. And when
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the Mayress saw the abundant locks of Maria, she coveted
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: them for herself, and it was for this reason that
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: she called to the Mayor to speak to her in private,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and besought him eagerly to persuade Maria to allow herself
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: to be shorn upon the return from the burial, I
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: warn you, said the Mayor, that you are desirous of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: entering upon a very naughty bargain for the disheveled girl
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: idolizes her hair in such wise that she would sooner
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: lose a finger than suffer one of her tresses be
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: cut off. I warn you, replied the Mairess, that if
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: on this very day the head of this young girl
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: is not shorn, smooth beneath my hand as a melon,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: the child to which I am about to give birth
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: will have a head of hair on its face. And
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: if it happens to be a female, look you, a
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: pretty daughter is in store for you. But bethink yourself
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: that Maria will ask who knows a good few crowns
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: for the shaving. Bethink yourself that if not your heir
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: or heiress begotten after many years, marriage will come amiss.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: And be in mind, by the way, that we are
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: not so young as to hope to replace this by another.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Upon this, she turned her back to the Mayor and
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: went to her apartment, crying out, I want the hair.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: I must have the hair, and if I do not
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: get the hair by my halidum, I shall never become
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: a mother. In the meantime, the funeral had taken place
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: without any novelty to mention, excepting that if in the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: streets any loose spellow in the crowd essayed to annoy
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the fair Maria, the hood and mute of whom we
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: had made mentioned before, quickly drew from beneath his cloak
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: a strap with which he gave a lash to the
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: insolent rogue, without addressing one word to him, and then
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: walked straight on as if nothing had happened. When all
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: the mourners returned, the Mayor seized hold of Maria's hand
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and said to her, and now, fear maiden, let us
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: withdraw for a little while into this other apartment, And
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: thus talking walst in motion, he brought her into his
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: wife's private tiring room, and sat himself down in a chair,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: and bent his head and stroked his beard with the
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: mien of one who was studying what beginning to give
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: to his speech. Maria, a little foolish and confused, remained
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: standing in front of the Mayor, and she also humbly
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: lowered before him, her eyes black as the slow, and
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to akie herself with something gently fingered the ends of
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the sash which girded her waist and hung down over
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: her skirt, not knowing what to expect from the grave
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: mean and the long silence of the Mayor, who raising
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: his eyes and looking up at Maria when he beheld
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: her in so modest a posture devised, thence a motive
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: with which to begin saying. Forsooth, Maria, so modest and
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: sanctimonious is thy bearing that it is easy to see
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: thou art preparing thyself to become a black, wimpled nun.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: And if it be so, as I presume it to be,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: I now offer of my own accord to dispose of
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: thy entry into the cloisters without any dowry, on the
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: condition that thou dost give me something that thou hast
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: on thy head, and which then will not be necessary
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: for thee nay be shrew me, Sir Mayor, replied Maria,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: for I durst not think that the Lord calls upon
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: me to take that step, for then my poor father
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: would remain in the world without the staff of his
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: old age. Then now I desire to give THEE some wise,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: counsel made Miria. Thou's dost gain thy bread with great fatigue.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Thou shouldest make use of thy time as much as possible. Now,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: one of thy neighbors hath told me that in the
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: dressing of thy hair thou dost waste every day more
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: than an hour. It would be better far if thou
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: didst spend this hour on thy work, rather than in
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: the dressing and braiding which thou cost to thy hair.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: That is true, sir Mayor, replied Maria, turning red as
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: a carnation. But look, you, is not my fault. If
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I have a wealth of tresses, the combing and plaiting
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: of which necessitates so long a time every morning, I
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: tell THEE, it is thy fault, retorted the Mayor. For
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: if thou didst cut off this, thou wouldst save thyself
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: all this combing and plaiting, and thus wouldst have more
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: time for work, and so gain more money. And wouldest
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: also give no occasion to people to call they vain.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: They even say that the devil will someday carry THEE
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: off by the hair nay, do not be distressed, for
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I already perceive the tears gathering in thine eyes, for
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: thou hast them indeed very ready at hand. I admonish
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: THEE for thine own good, without any self interest. Cut
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: thy hair off, chear thyself, shave thyself good, Maria, And
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: to allay the bitterness of the shearing, I will give
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: fifty Maravedi's, always on condition that thou dost hand me
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: over the hair. When Maria at first heard this offer
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: of so reasonable a sum for this her hair, it
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: seemed to her a jest of the mayor's, and she
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: smiled right sweetly while she dry her tears, repeating, you
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: will give me fifty Maraveddi's if I shave myself now.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: It appeared to the Mayor, who it is said, was
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: not gifted with all the prudence of ulysses, that the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: smile signified that the maid was not satisfied with so
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: small a price. So he added, if thou wilt not
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: be content with fifty Maravedi's, I will give THEE a hundred.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Then Maria saw some hangings of the apartment moving in
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: front of her, and perceiving a bulky protuberance. She immediately
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: divined that the mayoress was hiding behind there, and that
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the protuberance was caused by her portly form. Now she
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: discovered that the mayor's design, and that it was probably
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: a caprice of his spouse, and she made a vow
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: not to suffer herself to be shorn unless she acquired
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: by these means the five hundred Mara veddis needed to
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: pay the Arabian physician who would give her father back
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: his eyesight. Then the mayor raised his price from one
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: hundred Maraveddi's to one hundred and fifty, and afterwards to
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: two hundred. And Maria continued her sweet smiling, shaking of
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the head and gestures, and every time that the mayor
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: bid higher, and Maria feigned to be reluctant, she almost
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: hoped that the Mayor would withdraw from his proposition, for
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: the great grief it caused her to despoil herself of
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: that precious ornament, notwithstanding that my means of it she
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: might gain her father's health. Finally, the mayor anxious to
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: conclude the treaty, for he saw the stirring of the
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: curtains and knew by them the anxiety and state of
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: mind of the listener closed by saying, go too, hussy,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I will give THEE five hundred Maraveddi's see once and
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: for all. If thou canst agree on these terms. How
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: be it so, oh, replied Maria, sighing as if her
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: soul would flee from her flesh with these words? Be
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: it so so long that nobody doth know that I
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: remain bald? I will give my word for it, said
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: the mayress, stepping from behind the curtain with a pair
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: of sharp shears in her hands and a wrapper over
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: her arm. When Maria saw the scissors, she turned as
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: yellow as wax. And when they told her to sit
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: down on the sacrificial chair, she felt herself grow faint
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: and had to ask for a drink of water. And
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: when they tied the wrapper round her throat, it is
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: related that she would have immediately torn it asunder if
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: her courage had not failed her. And when at the
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: first movement of the shears she felt the cold iron
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: against her skull, I tell you it seemed to her
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: as if they were piercing her heart with a bright dagger.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: It is possible that she did not keep her head
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: still for a moment while this tonsuring was taking place,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: she moved it in spite of herself, now to one side,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: now to another, to flee from the clipping of scissors,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: of which the rude cuts and the creaking axis wounded
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: her ears. Her posture and movements, however, were of no
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: avail to the poor shorn maiden, and the pertinacious shearer,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: with the anxiety and covetousness of a pregnant woman satisfying
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: a caprice, seized the hair well or ill by handfuls,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and went on bravely clipping, and the locks fell onto
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: the white wrapper, slipping down thence till they reached the ground.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: At last, the business came to an end, and the mayress,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: who was beside herself with joy, caressingly passed the palm
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: of her hand again and again over the maid's bald
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: head from the to the back, saying, by my mother's soul,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: I have shorn you so regularly and close to the route,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: that the most skillful barber could not have shorn you.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Better get up and raid the hair, while my husband
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: goes to get the money and eye your clothes, so
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: that you can leave this house without anyone perceiving it.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: The Mayor and Mayoress went out of the room, and Maria,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: as soon as she found herself alone, went to look
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: at herself in a mirror that hung there, And when
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: she saw herself bald, she lost the patience she had
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: had until then, and groaned with rage, and struck herself,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and even tried to wrench off her ears, which appeared
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to her now outrageously large, although they were not so
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: in reality. She stamped upon her hair and cursed herself forever,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: having consented to lose it without remembering her father, and
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: just as if she had no father at all. But
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: as it is a quality of human nature to accept
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: what cannot be altered, poor angry Maria calmed down little
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: by little, and she picked up the hair from the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: ground and bound it together and braided it into great ropes,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: without kissing it, and lamenting over it many times. The
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Mayor and the Mayoress returned, he with the money, and
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: she with the everyday clothes of Maria, who undressed and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: folded her white robe in a kerchief, put on her
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: old gown, hid herself with her shawl to the eyes,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and walked moaning to the house of the moor, without
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: noticing that the man with the hood over his head
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: was following behind her, and that when she, in a
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: moment of forgetfulness, lowered her shawl, through the habit she
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: had of displaying her tresses, her bald head could be
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: plainly seen. The More received the five hundred maravedis with
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: them good will with which money is always received, and
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: told Maria to bring Juan Lanas to his house to
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: stay there so long as there was any risk in
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: the cure. Maria went to fetch the old man and
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: kept silence as to her shorn head so as not
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: to grieve him, And whilst Juan remained the physician's guest,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Maria durst not leave her home except after nightfall, and
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: then well enveloped. This, however, did not hinder her from
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: being followed by the muffled up man. One evening, the
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: More told her in secret that the next morning he
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: would remove the bandages from Juan's eyes. Maria went to
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: bed that night with great rejoicing, but thought to herself
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: that when her father saw her, which would be with
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: no little pleasure, he would be pleased three or four
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: times more if he could see her with the pretty headdress,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: which she used to wear in her native town. Amidst
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: such cavillation, she downed the next day her best petticoat
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and ribbons to his to the Arabian's house, and while
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: she was sitting down to shee herself, she of a
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: sudden felt something like a hood closing over her head,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: and turning round, she saw behind her the muffled up
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: man of before, who, throwing aside his cloak, discovered himself
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: to be the sword cutler Master Palomo, who without speaking,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: presented Maria with a little Venetian mirror in which she
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: looked and saw herself with her own hair and garb,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: in such wise that she wondered for a good time
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: if it were not a dream that the mayorss had
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: shorn her. The fact was that Master Palomo was a
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: great crony of the old woman barber, and had seen
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: in her house Maria's tresses on the very same afternoon
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: of the morning in which he saw Maria was bald,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: and keeping silence upon the matter, had wheedled the old
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: woman into keeping Maria's hair for him, and dressing the
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: mayoressts some other hair of the same hue which the
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: crone had from a dead woman, a bargain by which
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: the crafty old dame acquired many a bright crown. And
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the story relates that as soon as Maria regained her
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: much lamented and sighed for hair by the hands of
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: the gallant sword cutler, the Master appeared to her much
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: less ugly than before. I do not know if it
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: tells that from the moment she began to look on
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: him with more favorable eyes, But I sooth it is
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: a fact that, upon his asking her to accept his
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: escort to the Moor's house, she gave her assent, and
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: the two set out hand in hand, the maiden holding
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: her head up free from mufflers. As they both entered
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: the physician's apartment, her father threw himself into Maria's arms, crying,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: glory to God. I see THEE now, my beloved daughter.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: How tall and beautiful thou art grown. Verily, it is
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: worthwhile to become blind for five years to see one's
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: daughter matured. Thus, now that I see daylight again, it
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: is only right that I should no longer be a
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: burden to THEE. I shall work for myself, For as
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: for THEE, it is already time for THEE to marry
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: for this very purpose? Am I come broke in this
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: opportune moment, the silent sword cutter. I, as you will
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: have already recognized by my voice, am your neighbor, Master Palomo.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: I love Maria and ask you for her hand lack
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: a day, Master, but your exterior is not very prepossessing.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: Howbeit if Maria doth accept you, I am content, I
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: replied Maria, wholly abashed and smoothing the false hair, which
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: then weighed upon her head and heart like a burden
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of five hundred weight. I so may God enlighten me,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: for I durst not venture to reply. Palomo took her
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: right hand without saying anything, And as he did so,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Maria looked at the master's wrists and observed the wristbands
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: of his shirt neatly embroidered, and, with some suspicion and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: beating of her heart, said to him, if you wish
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: to please me, good neighbor, tell me by what seamstress
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: is this work? It is the work, replied the master jocularly,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: the work of a pretty maiden who for five years
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: has toiled for my person, albeit she hath not known
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: it till now. Now, I perceive, said Maria, how all
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the women who have come to give me linen to
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: sew and embroider were sent by you, and that is
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: why they paid me more than his customary. The Master
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: did not reply, but he smiled and held out his
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: arms to Maria. Maria threw herself into them, embracing him
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: very caressingly. And Juan himself said to the two, in
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: good sooth, you were made one for the other by
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: my troth, my beloved one, continued the sword cutler, after
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: a while, if my countenance had only been more pleasing,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: I should not have been silent towards you for so
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: many long days, nor would I have been content with
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: gazing at you from afar. I should have spoken to you.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: You would have made me the confidant of your troubles,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: and I would have given you the five hundred marvettis
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: for the cure of your good father. And, whispering softly
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: into her ear, he added, and then you would not
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: have passed that evil man under the hands of the mayorss.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: But if you fear that she may break the promise
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: she made to you to keep silence as to your
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: cropped head, let us, if it please you, set out
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: for Seville, where nobody knows you. And thus no more,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: exclaimed Maria, resolutely, throwing on the ground the hair which
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: Juan picked up, all astonished. Send this hair to the mayress,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: since it was for this and not for that of
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: the dead woman, that she paid so dearly for I
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: to cure myself of my vanity. Now make a vow
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: with your good permission, to go shorn all my life.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Such artificial adornments are little befitting to the wives of
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: honest burghers. But rely upon it, replied the master cutler,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: that as soon as it is known that you have
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: no hair, the girls of the city, envious of your beauty,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: will give you the nickname of Marquita the Ball. They
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: may do so, replied Maria, and that they may see
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: that I do not care a big for this or
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: any other nickname. I swear to you that from this
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: day fourth I will not suffer anybody to call me
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: by another name, then Marquita the Bald. This was the
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: event that rendered so famous throughout all Castile, the beautiful
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: daughter of good Juan Lanas, who in effect married Master
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Palomo and became one of the most honorable and prolific
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: women of the most illustrious City of Toledo, end of
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: chapter three, Section four of First Love and Other Fascinating
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: Stories of Spanish Life by Armando Balacio Valdes. This LibriVox
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Alison hester
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: And Athens, Georgia, Section four, The Love of Clotilde. In
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: the dressing room of Clotilde, leading actress of one of
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the most important theaters in the capitol, there gathered every
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: night about half a dozen of her male friends. The
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: reception lasted almost always about as long as the performances,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: but it included a number of parentheses. Whenever the actress
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: was obliged to change her costume, she would turn towards
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: her visitors with a bewitching smile and beseeching eyes. Gentlemen,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: will you withdraw for one little moment? Not more than
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: one little moment. Thereupon they would all transfer themselves to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: the ante room and remain there patiently waiting. No I
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: am mistaken, not quite all, because the youngest of them,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: a third year student in the school of Medicine, would
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: avail himself of the chance to take a turn in
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: the wings, to stretch his legs and snatch a fugitive
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: kiss or so. At all events, the majority remained either
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: seated or pacing up and down until the moment when
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: clotil Day would reopen her door and, putting out her head,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: decked as queen or peasant girl, according to the part
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: she was playing, would call out, now you may come back, gentlemen,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: have I been very long? Don Hronimo always lingered, He
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: was the last to withdraw, grumbling, and the first to
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: return to the dressing room. He was never able to
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: reconcile himself to that modest custom, and although he never
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: allowed himself to say so openly, yet in the depths
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: of his secret thoughts, he regarded it as a lack
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: of courtesy that he should be ejected from his seat
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: merely because the silly cho child must change her dress.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: He who for thirty years had passed his life behind
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: the scenes and had been on intimate terms with every
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: actor actress, ancient and modern. He was fifty four years
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of age and had been attached to the Ministry of
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: Foreign Affairs ever since he was four and twenty. Each
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: successive government had regarded him as one of the indispensable
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: wheels in the machinery of colonial administration. Furthermore, he was
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: a bachelor and living at the mercy of his landlady.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: It was said that in his youth he once wrote
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: a play which won him nothing but hisses and free
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: entry for life behind the scenes of the theaters. Whether
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: resigned or not, to the verdict of the public, he
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: ceased to write plays and assumed instead the nobler role
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: of patron to unrecognized authors and artists, and to ruined
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: managers and a youth from the province says, who arrived
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: in Madrid with a drama in his pocket could take
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: no surer road to seeing it produced than that which
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: led to the home of Don Hieronimo one. And all
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: he received them with open arms, the good and the
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: bad alike. There is no denying that, since he was
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: rather brusque in his ways, he never spared the young
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: authors who asked his advice and read him their productions,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: but criticized vigorously, even to the verge of insult. This
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: whole episode is sheer nonsense. Spill your ink well on it.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Why look here, for the love of heaven, how do
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: you suppose that a man who was on the point
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: of committing murder is going to stand there for sixteen
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: seconds without drawing his breath. Lord, what tommy rot platonic
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: love for a woman of that class? You must have
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: tumbled out of the nest unfledged, my lad. But anyone
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: possessed of a little tact refused to take offense, but
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: went calmly on and ended by entrusting his manuscript to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: the hands of Don Hieronimo, and he could rest assured
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: that his drama would be produced. The veteran of the
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: green Rooms exercised a strong influence, akin to an intimidation,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: over managers and actors alike. When he was displeased, he
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: gave his tongue free reign. If a play had been hissed,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: he would protest, boiling with rage against the public verdict,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: and would continue to support the author more staunchly than ever. If,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: on the contrary, it scored a hit, he merely kept
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: silent and smiled ecstatically, but never sought out the successful
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: author in order to congratulate him. And if the latter
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: should complain on his indifference, his answer was, now that
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: you have shown that you can use your wings, will
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: you please, my friend? Will you please leave me free
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: to succor us some other poor fellow, his private life
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: offered little of special interest. Every night, upon leaving the theater,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: he betook himself to the Cafe Habanero, where he habitually
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: consumed a beefsteak, together with a small measure of beer. And,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: according to a certain friend who had watched him repeatedly,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: he always managed his repast so artfully as to finish
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: at one and the same time the last mouthful of meat,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: the last fragrant of bread, and the last draft of beer.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: On this particular night, the little gathering was unwontedly animated.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: The actress's friends indulged more freely than usual in gossip
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: and laughter. Don Hieronimo muffled closely in his cape, one
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: of his privileges, lounging at ease in the big corner
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: chair and with his inevitable cigar between his teeth. Another
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: special privilege was giving utterance to rare and racy stories,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: which from time to time caused his hearers to cast
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: a glance in the direction of Clotilde and brought a
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: slightly heightened color to the latter's cheeks. Don Hieronimo himself
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: took no notice of this. He had at first known
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: her as such a mere child that he considered he
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: had the right to dispense with certain courtesies that are
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: due to ladies, assuming that in the whole course of
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: his life he had ever shown them to any woman,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: which is very doubtful. He had met her first as
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: a mere child, and had opened the way for her
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: to the stage. At the time he ran across her,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: she was living wretchedly and trying to learn the art
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: of making artificial flowers. Today, thanks to her talent, she
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: earned enough to keep her mother and sisters in comfort.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Clotilde attraction lay in her charm of manner, rather than
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: her beauty. Her complexion was olive, her eyes large and black,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: and best of all her features her mouth somewhat big,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: but with bright red lips and admirably even teeth. Tonight,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: she was costumed as a lady of the time of
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: Louis the fifteenth, with powdered hair, which was marvelously becoming
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: to her. She took almost no part in the conversation,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: but seemed satisfied to merely be a listener, constantly turning
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: her serene gaze from one speaker to another, and often
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: answering only with a smile. When they addressed her all
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: at once, there came the voice of the callboy, Senorita Clotilidae,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: if you please coming, she answered, rising, She crossed over
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: to the mirror, gave a few final touches to her
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: brows and lashes with a pencil adjusted with somewhat nervous fingers,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: the coils of her hair, the cross of brilliance which
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: she wore at her throat, and the folds of her dress.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Her friends became for the moment silent and abstractively watched
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: these last preparations. Goodbye for the present, gentlemen, and she
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: left the dressing room, followed by her maid, carefully bearing
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: her train, a magnificent train of cream colored satin. She
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: grows lovelier every day, Clotilde does, said the medical student,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: allowing an imperceptible sigh to escape him. Don Hieronimo took
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: an enormous pull at his cigar and instantly became enveloped
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: in a cloud of smoke. For this reason, no one
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: observed the smile of triumph with which she received the
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: medical student's remark. I agree with you that she grows
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: prettier every day, said another of the visitors, but it
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: seems to me that her disposition has been undergoing a
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: big change for some time back. You, my boy, have
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: not known her as long as we have. She used
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: to be a fascinating talker, so merry, so full of spirits.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: No one could ever remain out of temper in her company.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: But now I find her grave and sad almost all
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: the time. It is a fact I have wondered at
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: the melancholy look in her eyes. Don Hieronimo took another
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: enormous pull at his cigar. No one saw the swift
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: flare of anger that passed over his face. Changes like that,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: My boy, have only one cause, and that is love.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: Was she engaged precisely? Don Hieranimo knows the story very well. Yes,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: and I am going to tell it to you, said
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: the one referred to from the depths of his cloak.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Though you may belie, believe me that it is no
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: pleasant task to relate such follies, But it concerns a
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: girl whom we all of us love, and whatever affects
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: her ought to interest us. Some three years ago, a
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: young man, faultlessly dressed with the manuscript of a play
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: under his arm, called upon the director of the theater. Now,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: there is nothing in the world more impressive and all
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: inspiring than a well dressed young man who carries the
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: manuscript of a play under his arm. The director did
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: his best to dodge him, and held him off with
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: a number of adroit moves, but he was finally cornered.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: All the same. In other words, the young man invited
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: him to breakfast one day, enticing him with the seductive
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: prospect of several dozen oysters washed down with abundant sulturne,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: and for dessert. He shut off his play at close range.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: As it turned out, the play was no good. Pepe
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: he did what you know one does in such cases.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: He expressed deep admiration for the versification, He said bravo
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: over certain obscurely phrased thoughts, and finally he recommended a
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: few changes in the second act, after which the work
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: would be unexceptionable. The unweary poet returned home greatly pleased
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: and set to work zealously upon the revision. At the
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: end of a fortnight, he returned for another interview with Peppe.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: This time, the latter found the first act somewhat slow
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: and advised him, at any cost to put more action
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: into it and make it somewhat shorter. It took the
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: poet a month to rewrite the first act. When he
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: once more presented himself, the director, while expressing great admiration
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: for the excellence of the verse and for some of
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: the ideas, manifested some doubt as to whether the play
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: was actable, that is, was literary. He had none whatever.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, it seemed to him that from this
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: point of view it compared favorably with the best of
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Alea's plays. But actable really actable?
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: Ah?
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: That was another matter. What is the difference, don Hieronimo,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. Then I will explain, my boy, We
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: who are behind the scenes mean by actable a good
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: play and by literary a bad one. I see. After
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: expressing these doubts, the manager concluded by recommending certain additional
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: alterations in the third act. At last, the poet understood
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: a really marvelous occurrence. Because poets who understand everything else
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: and can tell you why the condor flies so high,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: who soars to the sky and descend into the abyss
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: and penetrate the secret thoughts of all created things, are
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: not capable of realizing that there are times when their
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: works do not please those who hear them. Our young man,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: whom we will call in Osinsio, received back his manuscript
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: somewhat peevishly, and for a while nothing further was heard
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: of him. But at last, doubtless, after a good deal
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: of profound meditation, he presented himself on a certain morning
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: at the home of Clotilde. I hardly need tell you
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: that he carried his manuscript under his arm. He waited
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: patiently in the parlor while our young friend completed her toilet,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: and when at last she made her appearance, she saw
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: before her a blushing and confused young man, who nevertheless
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: was pleasant mannered and fashionably dressed, and who besought, with
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: stammering lips, that she would do him the favor of
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: listening while he read his play. Women, you must know,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: find a singular pleasure in playing the role of patronus,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: especially in regard to young men of pleasant manners and
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: fashionable dress, so that it is not at all surprising
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: that Clotilide listened patiently to the play and even pronounced
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: it acceptable. The young man, entrusted himself wholly to her guidance,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: deposited his manuscript in her pretty hands as though it
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: were a newborn child, and she received it like a
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: doting mother, took it under her protection, and promised to
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: watch over its precious existence and introduce it to the world.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: The young man declared that such an intention was worthy
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: of the noble heart, whose fame had already reached his ears.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: Clotilide replied that it was no kindness on her part
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: to work to have the play produced, but only an
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: act of justice. The young man said that this idea
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: was exceedingly flattering, because Clotilide's great talent and the accuracy
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: of her judgments were well known to everyone, but that
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: he dared not build upon such an illusion. Clotilde declared
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: that there were many unmerited reputations in the world, and
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: one of them was hers, but that on this occasion
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: she felt that she was on firm ground. The young man.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: Replied that when the river roars, the water toils, and
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 3: that when the whole world unites in admiring not only
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: the exceptional beauty and artistic inspiration of a certain person,
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: but also her splendid genius and brilliant intellect.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: It was necessary to bow one's head. Clotilde said that
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: on this occasion, she refused to bow hers, because she
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: was quite convinced that the world was greatly mistaken regarding
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: what it called her talent, which was nothing more nor
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: less than pure instinct. The young man cried out to
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: Heaven against such mystification, for which there was absolutely no excuse. Then,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: promptly calming down, he declared himself profoundly moved by the
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: modesty of his patronus, and swore by all the saints
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: in the heaven that he never had met her equal,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: with the result that the manuscript was momentarily gaining a
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: ground in the heart of our sympathetic friend, and that
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: the young man, overwhelmed with emotion, took his leave of
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: her until the following day. On the following day, Clotilde
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: called upon the manager, and, by threatening to break her contract,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: forced from him a promise to produce in Osensio's play
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible. That same afternoon, the poet expressed
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: his thanks to his patronus and promptly took her into
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: his confidence. He belonged to a distinguished provincial family, although
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: without great finance resources. It was in the hope of
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: bettering them that he had come to Madrid relying solely
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: upon his genius in his native town. They said that
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: he had talent, and that if the verses which he
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: had contributed to the Tegas Echo had been published in Madrid,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: he would be talked of as a second Nunez de
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: Artsei Grillo. He did not know whether that was so,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: but he felt that his heart was full of noble sentiments,
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: and he loved the theater better than the apple of
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: his eye. Would he succeed in being an Ayala or
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: a tamayo, Would he be rejected by the public. It
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: was an insoluble mystery to him. During this interview, Clotilda
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: became convinced of two very important things. Namely, that Inocnsio
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: possessed a talent so great that his head could scarcely
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: hold it. And secondly, that there was no one else
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: in all Madrid who could wear so conspicuous a necktie
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: with such a charming effect. I need not tell you
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: that their confidential interviews increased in frequency, and that consequently
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Clotilday came, day by day more completely under the fascinating
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: influence of that supernatural necktie. In the end, she yielded
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: herself vanquished and surrendered herself to it, bound hand and foot.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: The necktie designed to raise her from the ground and
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: grant her the favor of its affection. What about a necktie,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: asked one of the company, who had been nodding. Don
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: Heerndimau took an immense and infernal pull at his cigar
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: and testimony of his annoyance, then proceeded with no further notice. Meanwhile,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: the rehearsals of Inocincio's play had begun. It was called
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, stooping to conquer. Excuse me, no,
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: I believe it was just the reverse, conquering to stoop. Well,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: at all events, it contained a participle and an infinitive.
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: Before long I became aware that lover like relations had
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: been established between our fear friend and the author. And since,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, even if Nucincio was a
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: bad poet, as Pepy insisted, he seemed like a good lad,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: I was very glad it had happened that I had
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: helped it along as much as I could. Clotilidae confided
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: in me and declared that she was desperately in love,
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: that her ambitions no longer had anything to do with
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: the art of the stage, which seemed to her an
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: unbearable slavery. That her ideal was to live tranquility, even
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: if it were in a garret, united to the man
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: whom she adored. That woman was born to be the
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: guardian angel of the fireside, and not to divert the public,
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: and that she her he would rather be queen of
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: a humble little apartment illuminated with love than to receive
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: all the applause in the world. In short, gentlemen, our
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: young friend was living in the midst of an idyllic dream.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: Inocincia was, to all appearance no less in love than she.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: I frequently encountered them walking through the unfrequented paths of
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: the retiro, at a respectable distance from her mother, who
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: lingered opportunely to examine the first opening buds of flowers
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: or some curious insect. Mothers at this critical period of
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: courtship are under an obligation to be admirers of the
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: works of nature. The young pair of turtle doves would
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: pause when they caught sight of me and greet me blushingly.
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: I cannot conceal from you that, however much I felt
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: the loss to art, I was delighted that Clotilidae was
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: going to be married. A woman always needs the protection
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: of a man, and there is no question that, so
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: far as outward appearance went, they were worthy of one another.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: You know, Cinco certainly was a most attractive young fellow.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: At the theater they talked of nothing else than of
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: this wedding, which was still in the bud. Everybody was
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: delighted because Clotilde is the only actress since the beginning
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: of the world who took it into her head to
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: attempt what until now was regarded as impossible, to make
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: herself beloved by her companions. I observed nevertheless, for you
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: know that I am an observant person. It is the
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: only quality that I possess, that of observation, a thing
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: to which the authors of today attach no importance. Today,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: in the drama, everything is so much dried leaves, a
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: lot of moonshine which they let filter down through the
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: foliage of trees, a lot of description of dawn and twilight,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: and a lot of other similar pastry shop stuff. That's
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: all there is to it. When any fledgling author comes
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: to me with nonsense of that sort, I say to him,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: get down to the facts. Get down to the facts.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: The facts are the drama which doesn't exist in the
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: great part of the above mentioned aren't you exciting yourself?
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: Don Hieronimo. Well, as I was telling you, I observed
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: that as the rehearsals progressed, the ascendancy of enocnco over
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: our young friend increased. The tone in which he addressed
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: her was no longer the humble and courteous tone of
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: earlier days. He corrected her frequently in her manner of delivery.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: He dictated the attitudes and gestures which she should adopt,
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: and sometimes, when the actress did not quite understand his wishes,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: he allowed himself to address her publicly in rather severe terms,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: and the way he looked at her was severer Still,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: our poet was already thundering and lightning like a true lord,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: and Master Clotilde accepted it with good grace. She, who
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: had always been so haughty even towards the most distinguished authors,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: stretched out and shrank back like a soft wax in
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: the hands of that insignificant Jackanapes. You ought to have
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: seen the humility with which she accepted his suggestions, and
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: the distress which his censures caused her. All the time
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: that the rehearsal lasted, she kept her eyes steadily fixed
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: upon him, watching like a submissive slave to catch the
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: wishes of her master. The poet, lolling at ease in
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: an armchair with a Brazil year of hot coals before him,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: directed the action in as dictatorial a manner as either Gracia,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Guterrees or Ayala could have done. A mere glance from
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: him sufficed to make Clotilde flush, crimson, or turn pale.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: The other actors made no protest out of consideration for her.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: When she had finished her scene, she came eagerly to
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: take her seat beside her betrothed, who sometimes deemed to
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: welcome her with a haughty smile and at other times
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: with an olympian indifference. I meanwhile looked on, scandalized. On
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: one occasion, I came upon them from behind and overheard
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: what they were saying. Clotilde was speaking and hotly maintaining
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: that in Osinsio's stooping to conquer or conquering to stoop
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: was better than a new drama. The young man protested fee.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: On another occasion, they were speaking of their future union.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: Clotilde was picturing in impassioned phrases. The nook to which
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: they would go to hide their happiness, some lofty spot
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: on the hills of Salamanca, a dear little nest, bathed
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: in sunlight, where an Ossincio would work in his private study,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: writing plays, while she sat by his side and embroidered
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: in absolute silence. When he was tired, they could talk
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: for a while to let him rest, and then she
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: would give him a kiss and go back again to
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: her work. In the evening, they would go out arm
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: in arm to take a short walk, and then home again,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: but no more of the theater. She abhord it with
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: all her soul. In the spring, they would go every
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: morning to take a walk in the Reteiro and take
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: chocolate under the trees. In the summer, they would spend
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: a month or two in in Osinsio's birthplace, so as
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: to bring back from the country a supply of good
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: color and help for the coming winter. The description of
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: this tender idol, which even if I am a confirmed bachelor,
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: set my heart beating within my breast, produced no other
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: effect upon the new author than an insolent somnolence, which
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: would not disappear until he suddenly raised his imperious voice
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: to admonish someone of the actors. At last, the opening
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: night arrived, we were all anxious to see the result.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: The prevailing opinion was that the play offered little novelty,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: But since Clotilde had staked her whole soul upon the outcome,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: a big success was predicted. At the dress rehearsal, our
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: young friend had achieved genuine prodigies. There was a moment
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: when the few of us whom curiosity had brought to
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: witness it, rose to our feet, electrified, convulsed, making a
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: most unseemly outcry. You have no conception how marvelously she
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: rendered her part. Then and there, all of a sudden,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: an idea entered my head. Recalling all my observations of
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: Clotilde's love affair, I felt convinced, in view of the
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: evidence that Inocinsio had had no other purpose in winning
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: her love than to assure an exceptional interpretation of the
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: leading role of his play and a flattering outcome of
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: his venture. I decided not to communicate my suspicions to anyone.
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: I kept silent and hoped. But there is no doubt
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: that from that time on, the young man was decidedly
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: out of favor with me. The noise which in Ocincio's
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: friends had been making in regard to the theme of
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: his play, the fact that Clotilde had chosen it for
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: her her benefit performance, and the widespread rumor that the
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: celebrated actress was going to win a signal triumph in
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: it all worked together to help the speculators to dispose
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: of every seat in the house at fabulous prices. I
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: know a marquis who paid eleven duros for two orchestras dolls.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: This room where we are now sitting was filled, just
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: as it is annually, with flowers and presents. It was
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: impossible to move about in the midst of such a
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: conglomeration of porcelain books with costly bindings, ebony workboxes, picture frames,
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: and no end of other fancy trifles. The audience room
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: was unusually brilliant, the most resplendent ladies, the men, most
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: distinguished in politics, literature, and finance. In short, the high life,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: as the phrase goes, was all there. But even more
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: brilliant and more radiant was Inocincio himself, radiant with glory
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: and happiness, and graciously receiving the crowds of visitors who
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: came to see the presence, dictating orders to the callboys
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: and scene shifters, regarding the proper setting of the scene,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: and multiplying his smiles and handshakings to the point of infinity.
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: Clotilde also seemed more beautiful than ever, and her expressive
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: face revealed the tender emotion which possessed her, as well
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: as her deep anxiety to win laurels for her future husband.
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: The curtain arose and everyone hurried to occupy his seat
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: in the wings. There was no one save the author
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: and three or four of his friends. The opening scenes
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: were received, as usual, with indifference, the following ones with
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: a little more cordiality. The versification was fluent and polished,
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: as you know, the public appreciates sugar coated phrases. At last,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: the moment arrived for Clotilide's entrance, and a faint murmur
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: of curiosity and expectation ran through the audience. She spoke
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: her lines discreetly, but without much warmth. It was easy
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: to see she was afraid. The curtain fell in a
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: dead silence. Immediately, the waiting room and passageway were filled
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: by Innocincio's friends, who came eagerly to tell him that
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: this first performance of his play was a great success.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: But what was the matter with Clotilde. She hardly put
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: any movement into her part, and she was usually so
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: much alive, so tremendously forceful. Our young friend acknowledged that,
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, she had felt badly scared,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: and that this had hampered her seriously. The author, greatly
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: alarmed for the fate of his work, endeavored to persuade
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: her that there was nothing to be afraid of, that
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: all she had to do was be herself, and that
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: she was not to think of him at all while
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: she spoke her lines. I can't help it, insisted Clotilde.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: All the time that I am speaking, I keep thinking
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: that you are the author and imagining that the play
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: is not going to succeed, and it makes me so frightened.
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: Enocincio was in despair. He tried entreaties, advice, arguments. He
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: embraced her without caring who saw him. He tried to
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: infuse courage into her by appealing to her vanity as
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: an artist. In short, he did everything imaginable to save
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: his play. The second act began, Clotilde had a few
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: pathetic scenes. In the beginning, there was a certain slight
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: disturbance in the audience, and this sufficed to disconcert her
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: completely and to make her acting irremediably bad, worse than
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: she had ever acted in her whole life. A good
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: deal of coughing was heard, and some loud murmurs of impatience.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: At the end of that second act, a few indiscreet
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: friends tried to applaud, but the audience drowned them out
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: with an immense and terrifying series of hisses. The author,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: who was standing by my side pale as death, relieved
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: his feelings with a flood of coarse words, and made
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: his way to Pepe's room, which faces that of Clotilde,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: and where his friends consoled him, casting the whole blame
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: for the failure upon her and inflaming more and more
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: the anger surging in his heart. Meanwhile, our friend was
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: utterly crushed and overcome, and continually calling for her inocincio.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: In order to spare her further trouble, I told her
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: that the author had accepted the situation, resignedly, and had
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: left the theater to get a breath of air. The
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: unhappy girl bitterly blamed herself, taking the entire failure on
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: her own shoulders. The curtain rose for the third act,
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: and we all gathered anxiously at the wings clotil Day,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: by a powerful effort of will, showed herself at first
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: more self possessed than in the previous act. But the
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: audience was in a mood to have some sport, and
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: nothing could have made them take the play seriously. When
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: the public once since a trail, it is like a
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: wild beast that smells blood. There is no way of
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: heading it off, and you have got to let it
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: have its flesh at any cost. And there is no
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: doubt that on this occasion it gorged itself full coughs, laughter, sneezes, stampings, hisses.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: There was a little of everything. Tears sprang to our
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: poor friend's eyes, and she seemed upon the point of fainting.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: When the curtain finally fell, her eyes sought on all
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: sides for her lover, but he had disappeared in her
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: dressing room, where I followed her. She sobbed, groaned, gave
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: way to despair, called herself a fool, and said that
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: she was going to hire herself out on some farm
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: to tend the geese and war to the same effect.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: It cost me some hard work to calm her down,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: but at last I succeeded, so that she sank into
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: a sort of silent lethargy. In the sorrow which her
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: eyes revealed, I saw that what tormented her horribly was
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: the absence of Innocensio. The door of the room was
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: suddenly flung open. The defeated poet made his appearance. He
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: was quite pale, but apparently calm. Nevertheless, I perceived at
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: the first glance that his calmness was assumed, and that
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: the smile which contracted his lips closely resembled that of
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: a condemned man who wishes to die bravely. A gleam
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: of joy eliminated Clotilde's face. She rose swiftly and flung
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: her arms around his neck, saying, in a broken voice,
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: I have ruined you, my poor innocincio. I have ruined you.
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: How generous you are. But listen, I swear to you
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: by the memory of my father that I will atone
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: for the humiliation you have just suffered. There is no
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: need for you to atone, my dear girl, replied the
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: poet in a soft tone under which a disdainful anger
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: could be felt. My family has not achieved its illustrious
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: name through the intercession of any actor. From this day henceforth,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: I gladly renounced the theater and all that is connect
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: did with it accordingly. I wish you good day, And,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: unclasping the arm that imprisoned his neck, and smiling sarcastically,
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: he retreated a few steps and took his leave. Clotilde
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: gazed at him in a stupor, and then fell unconscious
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: on the divan. At the sight of her in such
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: a state, I felt my blood take fire, and I
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: followed the young man out. I overtook him near the stairs,
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: and grasping him by the wrist, I said to him
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: a word with you. The first thing that a man
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: has to be before he can be a poet is
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: a gentleman, and that is something you or not. Your
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: play was hissed because it lacks the same thing that
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: you lack, and that is a heart. Here, sir, is
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: my card, and did you not send him with your seconds?
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: Don Hieronimo inquired the medical student. Silence. Silence. Another of
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: the group here is Clotilda, and in fact, the charming
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: actress at that moment appeared in the doorway, and her
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: large and sad black eyes all the more beautiful beneath
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: her white Louis the fifteenth Qoifer smiled tenderly upon her
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: faithful friends. End of section four Section five of First
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: Love and Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish life. Captain Venenot's
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: proposal of marriage by Pedro Antonio de Alacran. This LibriVox
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain, read by Alison Hester,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: Great Heavens, what a woman, cried the captain and stamped
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: with fury. Not without reason have I been trembling and
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: in fear of her from the first time I saw her.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: It must have been a warning of fate that I
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: stopped playing a carte with her. It was also a
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: bad omen that I passed so many sleepless nights. Was
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: there ever mortal in a worse perplexity than I am?
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: How can I leave her alone without a protector, loving
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: her as I do more than my own life? And
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, how can I marry her after
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: all my declaimings against marriage? Then, turning to Augustius, what
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: would they say of me in the club? What would
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: people say of me if they met me in the
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: street with a woman on my arm, or if they
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: found me at home just about to feed a child
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: in swaddling clothes. I to have children, to worry about them,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: to live an eternal fear that they might fall sick
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: or die, Augustius, believe me, as true as there is
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: a god above us, I am absolutely unfit for it.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: I should behave in such a way that after a
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: short while you would call upon heaven either to be
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: divorced or to become a widow. Listen to my advice.
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: Do not marry me, even if I ask you, what
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: a strange creature you are, said the woman, without allowing
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: herself to be at all discomposed, and sitting very erect
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: in her chair, All that you are only telling to yourself.
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: From what do you conclude that I wish to be
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: married to you, that I would accept your offer, and
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: that I should not prefer living by myself, even if
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: I had to work day and night, as so many
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: girls do who are orphans. How do I come to
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: that conclusion, answered the captain with the greatest candor. Because
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: it cannot be otherwise, Because we love each other, Because
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: we are drawn to each other because a man such
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: as I and a woman such as you cannot live
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: any other way. Do you suppose I do not understand that.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: Don't you suppose I have reflect on it before? Now?
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: Do you think I am indifferent in your good name
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: and reputation. I have spoken plainly in order to speak
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: in order to fly from my own conviction, in order
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: to examine whether I can escape from this terrible dilemma
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: which is robbing me of my sleep, and whether I
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: can possibly find an expedient so that I need not
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: marry you to do which I shall finally be compelled
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: if you stand by your resolve to make your way alone,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: alone alone, repeated Augustius ruggishly. And why not with a
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: worthy of your companion who tells you that I shall
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: not someday meet a man whom I like and who
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: is not afraid to marry me? Augustius, Let us skip that,
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: growled the captain, his face turning scarlet. And why should
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: we not talk about it? Let us pass over that,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: and let me say at the same time that I
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: will murder the man who dares ask for your hand.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: But it is madness on my part to be angry
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: without any reason. I am not so dull as not
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: to see how we two stand. Shall I tell you
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: we love each other? Do not tell me I am mistaken.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: That would be lying. And here is the proof. If
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: you did not love me, I too should not love you.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: Let us try to meet one another halfway. I ask
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: for a delay of ten years. When I shall have
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: completed my half century, and when a feeble old man
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: I shall have become familiar with the idea of slavery,
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: then we will marry without anyone knowing about it. We
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: will leave Madrid and go to the country where we
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: shall have no spectators, where there will be nobody to
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: make fun of me. But until this happens, please take
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: half of my income secretly, and without any human soul
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: ever knowing about it. You continue to live here, and
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: I remain in my house. We will see each other,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: but only in the presence of witnesses, for instance, in society.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: We will write to each other every day, so as
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: not to endanger your good name. I will never pass
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: through this street, and on Memorial Day only we will
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: go to the cemetery together with Rosa. Augustinus could not
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: help but smile at the last proposal of the good Captain,
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: and her smile was not mocking, but contented and happy,
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: as if some cherished hope had dawned in her heart,
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: as if it were the first ray of the sun
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: of happiness which was about to rise in her heaven.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: But being a woman, though as brave and free from
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: artifices as few of them, she yet managed to subdue
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: the signs of joy rising within her. She acted as
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: if she cherished not the slightest hope, and said, with
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: a distant coolness, which is usually the special and genuine
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: sign of chaste, reserve. You make yourself ridiculous with your
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: peculiar all your conditions, you stipulate for the gift of
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: an engagement ring for which nobody has yet asked you.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: I know still another way out, for a compromise, but
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: that really is the last one. Do you fully understand,
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: my young lady from Ragon? It is the last way
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: out which a man also from Oragon, begs leave to
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: explain to you. She turned her head and looked straight
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: into his eyes with an expression indescribably earnest, captivating, quiet,
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: and full of expectation. The captain had never seen her
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: features so beautiful and expressive. At that moment, she looked
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: to him like a queen. Augustius said, or rather stammered,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: this brave soldier, who had been under fire a hundred times,
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: and who had made such a deep impression on the
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: young girl through his charging under a rain of bullets
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: like a lion, I have the honor to ask for
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: your hand on one certain, essential, unshe changeable condition tomorrow
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: morning today, as soon as the papers are in order,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: as quickly as possible, I can live without you no longer.
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: The glances of the young girl became milder, and she
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: rewarded him for his decided heroism with a tender and
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: bewitching smile. But I repeat that it is on one condition,
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: the bold warrior hastened to repeat, feeling that Augustius's glances
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: made him confused and weak. On what condition, asked the
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: young girl, turning fully round and now holding him under
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: the witchery of her sparkling black eyes. On the condition,
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: he stammered that, in case we have children, we will
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: send them to the orphanage. I mean, on this point
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: I will never yield. Well, do you consent? For Heaven's sake?
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: Say yes? Why should I not consent to it. Captain
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: Vanino answered Augustius with a peal of laughter. You shall
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: take them there yourself, or better still, we both of
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: us will take them there, and we will give them
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: up without kissing them or anything else. Don't you think
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: we shall take them there? Thus spoke Augustius, and looked
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: at the captain with exquisite joy in her eyes. The
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: good captain thought he would die of happiness. A flood
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: of tears burst from his eyes. He folded the blushing
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: girl in his arms and said, so am I lost?
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: Irretrievably lost? Captain Veneno answered Augustius. One morning in May
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two, that is four years after the scene
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: just described. A friend of mine who told me this story.
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: Stopped his horse in front of a mansion on San
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: Francisco Avenue in Madrid. He threw the reins to his
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: groom and asked, the long coated footman who met him
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: at the door, is your master at home? If your
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: honor will be good enough to walk upstairs, you will
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: find him in the library. His excellency does not like
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: to have visitors announced. Everybody can go up to him directly. Fortunately,
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: I know the house thoroughly, said the stranger to himself,
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: while he mounted the stairs in the library, well, well,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: who would have thought of Captain Veneno? Ever taking to
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: the sciences. Wandering through the rooms, the visitor met another
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: servant who repeated, the master is in the library. And
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: at last he came to the door of the room
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: in question, opened it quickly, and stood almost turned to
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: stone for astonishment before the remarkable group which had offered
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: to his view. In the middle of the room, on
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: the carpet which covered the floor, a man was crawling
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: on all fours on his back. Rode a little fellow
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: about three years old, who was kicking the man's side
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: with his heels. Another small boy, who might have been
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: a year and a half old, stood in front of
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: the man's head and had evidently been tumbling his hair.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: One hand held the father's neckerchief, and the other little
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: fellow was tugging at it as if it had been
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: a halter, shouting with delight in his merry child's voice.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: G Up, donkey, g Up. End of Section five and
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: End of First Love and Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: life by Amelia Pardo Bassan and others.