“The baritone, four,"
insisted
Maza with fury.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
The child-wife died a year and a half later,
leaving him an infant son. Marriage, birth, death, — what events
are more ordinary, yet what more momentous ? They are described
in Maximina' in a way that touches the chords of the deepest
and truest human feeling. El Cuarto Poder' (The Fourth Estate, or
The Press), 1888, takes its title from the founding of a newspaper
in a primitive little community; but the real scheme of the action
turns round the breaking off of an engagement between plain sincere
Cecilia and a steady-going young engineer, Gonzalo, by the machi-
nations of a pretty younger sister and arch-coquette, Venturita. The
opening chapter — where, on the occasion of a gala night at the thea-
tre, all the leading characters of the little place are introduced - is a
masterly piece of exposition and of social history. "La Hermana
"
San Sulpicio' (Sister San Sulpicio), 1889, is a gay, bright piece of
light comedy; showing how an engaging young novice, who has
mistaken her vocation in entering a convent, finds much more happi-
ness in leaving it and marrying her devoted suitor. Its scene is laid
at Seville; as that of the much less satisfactory (Los Majos de Cadiz'
(The Dandies of Cadiz), 1896, is at the more southern Andalusian city.
These are dandies of the lower class who wear short jackets and gay
sashes, and their social relations are unpleasant. In (La Fe' (Faith),
1892, an earnest young priest, Gil Lastra, undertakes to convert a
notorious skeptic, Montesinos, and is himself disastrously perverted.
El Origen del Pensamiento) (The Origin of Thought), 1894, appeared
in an English version — much mutilated, however - in an American
magazine. An erratic old man, Don Pantaleón, conceives the notion
that if he can only take off a portion of some one's skull, he can see
the actual process of the secretion of thought, and thus confer great
benefit on the human race. No other victim offering, he kidnaps a
sweet little grandchild of his own; but happily the child is rescued
in time — at the very last moment.
Many, or most, of these books have been translated into several
other languages, and have everywhere met with warm favor. There
are in a few of them incidents and personages treated with a freedom
more approximating that which French, rather than English, writers
allow themselves in certain matters; but it can truthfully be said
that the tone is everywhere one of exemplary morality. Regret and
reproach, not a Aippant levity, are the feelings made to attend the
contemplation of these scenes. Palacio Valdés is particularly happy
in his feminine types; above all, those of young girls just budding
into womanhood. Carmen, Marta, Rosa, Teresa, Maximina, Julita, Ven-
turita, and Sister San Sulpicio may be named; there is one or more
of them in almost every book. These, in their several ways, are all
depicted with a most natural and playful touch; they have the very
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11
essence of youth; they have a delicate charm, sensuous yet pure,
and they are not merely pretty to look at, but their talk scintillates
with intelligence. In some respects Valdés's women recall those of
Thomas Hardy, in other respects they are like Turgénieff's. In that
field he is unequaled by any Spanish contemporary.
11
William Henry Bishy
11
2
ME
[The following translations are from the original Spanish, by William Henry
Bishop, for (A Library of the World's Best Literature. ']
It
THE BELLE OF THE VILLAGE STORE
From (Señorito Octavio)
S"
a
1
He had just completed her eighteenth year; her skin was as
white as milk, her hair red as gold. Her mother was
blonde of the same type also, and yet the mother had never
passed for a beauty. Carmen's eyes were blue,- a deep dark
blue, like that of the sea; and one's imagination plunged into
their mysterious depths, and fancied he might find there palaces
of crystal and enchanting gardens, as in the hidden caves of
ocean. It seemed scarcely credible that such a rosebud was the
daughter of that rough pig of a Don Marcelino. While yet a
a
child, they had been wont to call her “The Little Angel. ” She
used to be much put out over it, too, and would run home to
the house weeping when, on the letting out of school, the child-
ren would follow her, giving her this complimentary nickname.
And in fact it would be difficult to imagine anything sweeter,
more charming, in the ethereal unworldly way, than Carmen
had been at twelve years old. On arriving at woman's estate,
the “angel” in her had become somewhat obscured; that celes-
tial epithet had been a little shorn of its accuracy. Yet nothing
had been lost by the change; for to the gloriously pure, sweet
lines of the girlish figure had been added certain terrestrial con-
tours and material roundnesses that became her to a marvel.
I confess a liking for women with this mingling of heaven
and earth; there is nothing that approaches it in thorough fasci-
nation. Hence it has happened to me, not merely once but many
times, in the course of this narration, to fancy, myself throwing
down my pen, and introducing myself among the minor person-
ages of the story, for the pure pleasure of paying court with
1
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
the rest to the lovely daughter of Don Marcelino. Suppose now
that she had not given me the mitten; - anything whatever, you
know, is within the field of supposition, and yet it is a bold one;
for, even apart from the aforesaid winning curves, it was stated
in Vegalora that she had a very pretty fortune of her own. If
Don Marcelino had accepted me for a son-in-law, I should have
been at the present moment a clerk, measuring off cotton or
percale by the yard, or at your service generally for whatever
you might please to command, in his accredited establishment.
In this way I should at any rate have escaped the humiliation and
martyrdom that fall to the lot, in Spain, of the luckless wight
who may, like myself, devote himself to letters or the fine arts
with more liking for them than capacity; though it is true, there
might have fallen upon my head other evils, of a sort from
which I pray heaven to save all of you now and forever, amen!
But then who would have written this veracious history of
Señorito Octavio ? Galdós, Alarcón, and Valera are occupied with
more august matters; and I am certain besides that they have
never even set foot in the shop of Don Marcelino.
While as
for me, in all that relates to Vegalora, and also its district for
six leagues all around, I assert — though this kind of talk may
appear over-bold and conceited to some that there is not another
novelist who is worthy to loose the latchet of my shoe, in respect
of knowing absolutely everything about it.
MARIA'S WAY TO PERFECTION
From Marta y Maria)
0"
NE evening, after the retirement of the family and servants,
mistress and maid were together in Maria's boudoir up in
the tower. Maria was reading by the light of the polished
metal astral lamp, while Genoveva was sitting in another chair
in front of her, knitting a stocking. They would often pass an
hour or two thus before going to bed, the señorita having been
long accustomed to read to the small hours of the morning.
She did not seem so much occupied as usual with her read-
ing; but would frequently put the book on the table and remain
pensive for a while, her cheek resting on her hand. She would
take it up in a hesitating way, but only presently to lay it down
again. It was evident too by the creaking chair, as she often
changed position, that she was nervous. From time to time she
## p. 15205 (#149) ##########################################
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(
»
would fix upon Genoveva a long gaze, that seemed to betray a
timid and uneasy desire, and a certain inward conflict with some
thought striving for utterance. On the other hand, Genoveva,
that evening, was more engrossed than usual with her stocking;
weaving in among its meshes, no doubt, a multitude of more or
less philosophical considerations that made it desirable for her to
give convulsive nods every now and then, very much as when one
is going to sleep.
At last the señorita concluded to break the silence.
"Genoveva, will you read for me this passage from the life of
St. Isabel ? ” she asked, handing her the book.
“With all the pleasure in the world, señorita. ”
"See, begin here where it says: When her husband) »
Genoveva commenced to read the paragraph to herself, but
Maria quickly interrupted her with -
"No, no: read it aloud. ”
(Thereupon the maid reads a passage of some twenty lines, in the char-
acteristic pious and mystical style of the Bollandist Lives of the Saints. The
gist of it is that the young and lovely princess and saint, Isabel, would pass
ber nights and days in the practice of the most austere penances. Of these
the wearing a hair-cloth shirt, and having herself scourged with the discipline
by her damsels, were a portion. ]
«That will do: you need not read any further.
What do you
think of it ? »
"I have often read the identical story before. ”
“Yes, so you have. But- now what would you think of my
trying to do something of the same kind ? ” she burst forth,
with the impetuosity of one who has decided to give utterance to
a thought with which she has long been preoccupied.
Genoveva stared at her with wide-open eyes, not taking in her
meaning
"Do you not understand ? »
"No, señorita. ”
Maria arose, and throwing her arms around her neck, with face
aflame with blushes, whispered close in her ear:-
"I mean, you silly thing, that if you would consent to do
the office of those damsels of St. Isabel to-night, I for my part
would imitate the saint. ”
« What office ? "
“Oh, you stupid, stupid thing! I mean that of giving me
a few lashes, in commemoration of those that our dear Savior
## p. 15206 (#150) ##########################################
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
received, and all the saints as well, patterning themselves after
him. ”
“What are you saying, señorita ? What put such a thing in
your head ? »
“I have thought of it because I wish to mortify my flesh,
and humiliate myself, at one and the same time. That is true
penance, and the kind that is most pleasing in the eyes of God,
for the reason that he himself suffered it for us. I have tried
to perform it unaided, but I have not been able to; and besides,
it is not so effective a humiliation as receiving it from the hands
of another. Now you will be so obliging as to gratify this desire
of mine, won't you? ”
"No, señorita, not for anything. I cannot do it. ”
“Why won't you, silly thing? Don't you see that it is for
my good ? If I should fail to deliver myself from some days of
purgatory because you would not do what I ask you, would you
not be troubled with remorse ? »
"But, my heart's dove, how could I make up my mind to
maltreat you, even if it were for your soul's good ? ”
« There is no way for you to get out of it: it is a vow I have
made, and I must fulfill it. You have aided me till now on my
way to virtue: do not abandon me at the most critical moment.
You will not, Genoveva dear; say you will not. ”
“For God's sake, señorita, do not make me do this! »
« Do, do, dearest Genoveva, I beg of you by the love that you
bear me. ”
“No, no, do not ask it of me: I cannot. ”
“Please do, darling! Oh, grant me this favor. You don't
know how I shall feel if you don't; I shall think that you have
ceased to love me. ”
Maria exhausted all her resources of invention and coaxing
to persuade her. Seating herself on Genoveva's lap, she lay-
ished upon her caresses and words of affection; at one moment
vexed, at another imploring, and all the time fixing upon her
a pair of wheedling eyes, which it seemed impossible to resist.
She was like a child begging for a toy that is kept back from
her.
When she saw that her serving-maid was a little softened,
- or rather was fatigued with persistent refusing, - she said with
a taking volubility: -
“Now, truly, stupid, don't you go and make it a thing of such
great importance. It isn't half as bad as a bad toothache, and
>
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1
you know I've suffered from that pretty often. Your imagina-
tion makes you think it is something terrible, when really it is
scarcely worth mentioning. You think so just because it isn't
the custom now, for true piety seems banished from the world;
but in the good old religious days it was a most ordinary and
commonplace affair, - no one who pretended to be a good
Christian neglected to do this kind of penance. Come now, get
ready to give me this pleasure that I ask of you, and at the
same time to perform a good work. Wait a minute: I'll bring
what we want. ”
And running to the bureau, she pulled out of a drawer a
scourge,-a veritable scourge, with a turned-wood handle and
leathern thongs. Then, all in a tremor of excitement and nerv.
ousness, that set her cheeks ablaze, she returned to Genoveva
and put it in her hand. The maid took it in an automatic way,
scarce knowing what she did. She was completely dazed. The
fair young girl began anew to caress her, and give her heart
with persuasive words, to which she did not answer a syllable.
Then the Señorita de Elorza, with tremulous hand, began to let
loose the dainty blue-silk wrapper she wore. There shone on
her face the anxious, excited foretaste of joy in the caprice which
was about to be gratified. Her eyes glowed with an unwonted
light, showing within their depths the expectation of vivid and
mysterious pleasures. Her lips were as dry as those of one
parched with thirst. The circle of shadow around her eyes had
increased, and two hectic spots of crimson burned in her cheeks.
Her breath came with agitated tremor through her nostrils, more
widely dilated than was usual. Her white, patrician hands, with
their taper fingers and rosy nails, loosed with strange speed the
fastenings of her gown. With a quick movement she shook it off,
and stood free.
“You shall see that I mean it,” she said: “I have almost
nothing on. I had prepared myself already. ”
In truth the next moment she took off, or rather tore off, a
skirt, and remained only in her chemise.
She stood so an instant; cast a glance at the implement of
torture in Genoveva's hand; and over her body ran a little shiver,
compounded of cold, pleasure, anguish, affright, and anxious ex-
pectation, all in one. In a low voice, changed from its usual
tones by emotion, she appealed:-
" Papa must not know of this. ”
1
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
And the light stuff of the chemise slipped down along her
body, caught for an instant on the hips, then sank slowly to the
floor. She remained nude. Genoveva contemplated her with
eyes that could not withhold admiration as well as reverence, and
the girl felt herself a little abashed.
“You are not going to be angry with me, Genoveva dear,
are you? ”
The waiting-maid could only say, “For God's sake, señor-
ita! »
“The sooner the better, now, for I shall take cold. ”
By this consideration she wished to constrain the woman
still more forcibly to the task. With a feverish movement she
snatched the scourge from her left hand and put it in her right;
then throwing her arms again around her neck, and kissing her,
she said, very low and affecting a jocose tone:-
“ You are to lay it on hard, Genovita; for thus I have prom-
ised God that it should be done. "
A violent trembling possessed her body as she uttered these
words: but it was a delicious kind of trembling that penetrated
to the very marrow of her bones. Then taking Genoveva by the
hand, she pulled her along a little towards the table on which
stood the effigy of the Savior.
“It must be here, on my knees before our Lord. ”
Her voice choked up in her throat. She was pale.
She
bowed humbly before the image; made the sign of the cross
rapidly; crossed her hands over her virginal breast; and turning
her face, sweetly smiling, towards her maid, said, “Now you can
begin. "
“Señorita, for God's sake! ” once more exclaimed Genoveva,
»
overwhelmed with confusion.
From the eyes of the señorita flashed a gleam of anger, which
died away on the instant; but she said in a tone of some slight
irritation, “Have we agreed upon this or not? Obey me, and do
not be obstinate. ”
The maid, dominated by authority, and convinced too that
she was furthering a work of piety, now at length obeyed, and
began to ply the scourge, but very gently, on the naked shoulders
of her young mistress.
The first blows were so soft and inoffensive that they left
no trace at all on that precious skin. Maria grew irritable, and
demanded that they be more forcibly given.
.
## p. 15209 (#153) ##########################################
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11
it
1
“No, not like that; harder! harder! ” she insisted. « But first
wait a moment till I take off this jewelry: it is ridiculous at
such a time. ”
And she swiftly pulled off the rings from her fingers, snatched
the pendants from her ears, and then laid the handful of gold
and gems at the foot of the effigy of Jesus. In like manner
St. Isabel, when she went to pray in the church, was used to
deposit her ducal coronet on the altar.
She resumed the same humble posture; and Genoveva, seeing
that there was no escape, began to lacerate the flesh of her pious
mistress without mercy. The lamplight shed a soft radiance
throughout the room. The gems lying at the feet of the Savior
alone caught it sharply, and Aung out a play of subtle gleams
and scintillations. The silence at that hour was absolute; not
even the sighing of a breath of wind in the casements was heard.
An atmosphere of mystery and unworldly seclusion filled the
room, which transported Maria out of herself, and intoxicated
her with pleasure. Her lovely naked body quivered each time
that the curling strokes of the lash fell upon it, with a pain
not free from voluptuous delight. She laid her head against the
Redeemer's feet, breathing eagerly, and with a sense of oppres-
sion; and she felt the blood beating with singular violence in her
temples, while the delicate fluff of hair growing at the nape of
the neck rose slightly with the magnetism of the extreme emo-
tion that possessed her. From time to time her pale, trembling
lips would murmur, Go on! go on! ”
The scourge had raised not a few stripes of roseate hue on
her snowy white skin, and she did not ask for truce. But the
instant came when the implement of torture drew a drop of
blood. Genoveva could not contain herself longer; she threw
the barbarous scourge far from her, and weeping aloud, caught
the señorita in her arms, covered her with affectionate kisses, and
begged her by her soul's sake never to make her recommence
the perpetration of such atrocities. Maria tried to console her,
assuring her that the whipping had hurt her very little. And
now, her ardor a little cooled, her ascetic impulses somewhat
appeased, the young mistress dismissed her servant, and went
to her bedroom to retire to rest.
1
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
A FRIENDLY ARGUMENT IN THE CAFÉ DE LA MARINA
From (El Cuarto Poder)
"
W"
HEN Don Melchior and his nephew entered the café, Gabino
Maza, on his feet, was gesticulating actively in the midst ·
of a little circle. He could not keep his seat two minutes
at a time. His excitable temperament, and the eagerness with
which he undertook to convince his audience, brought it about
that he would continually spring from his seat and dash into the
middle of the floor; and there he would shout and swing his
arms about till he had to stop for very want of strength and
breath. The subject of discussion was the opera company, which
had announced its approaching departure on account of having
lost money, in its subscription season of thirty performances.
Maza was arguing that the company had met with no such losses,
but that on the contrary the whole thing was a pretext and a
trick.
“I deny it, I deny it,” he vociferated. “Anybody who says
they have lost a farthing is a liar. — How are you, Gonzalo ? ”
to the younger man of the new arrivals: how's your health ? I
heard yesterday you were back. You're looking first-rate. — He's
a liar," he resumed, at the same pitch of violence. "I repeat it,
and I wager none of them would have the face to come to me
with that yarn. "
"According to the figures the baritone showed me, they have
lost thirty thousand reals ($1,500] in the thirty performances,”
said his friend Don Mateo.
Maza all but ground his teeth; indignation scarcely let him
speak.
"And
you
attach any
credit to what that toper says, Don
Mateo ? ” he managed to get out. Come, see
here now,”
with affected scorn, - "by dint of associating with actors, you'll
be forgetting your own occupation soon, like the smith they tell
about in the story. ”
“Listen, you madcap: I have not said I believed him, have I?
All I say is that that is the way it figures out, from what the
baritone told me. ”
Maza, who had approached quite near, now sprang violently
backward again, took up a position anew in the middle of the
## p. 15211 (#155) ##########################################
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
152FI
0
1
1
!
TE
>
-
(
1
room, snatched off his hat, and holding it in both hands to ges-
ticulate with, vociferated frantically:-
“Stop there! stop there! don't go a step further. Do they
take us for a lot of simple fedgelings just out of the nest ? Now
listen to me. Just tell me what they have done with the twenty
thousand and odd reals the subscription brought them, and the
nearly equal amount they must have taken in at the box-office. ”
“Well, for one thing, they have to pay very high salaries. ”
« Don't be a donkey, Álvaro; for the Holy Virgin's sake, try
and not be a donkey. I'll tell you exactly what salaries they
pay. The tenor - checking off on his fingers — «six dollars a
day; the soprano six more, - that makes twelve; the bass, four-
-
sixteen; the contralto, three — nineteen; the baritone, four - »
The baritone, five,” corrected Peña.
“The baritone, four," insisted Maza with fury.
"I am certain it is five. ”
« The baritone, four,” shouted Maza anew.
Upon this, Álvaro Peña arose in his turn, raising his voice
too, and, burning with a noble desire for victory, undertook to
convince or shout down his opponent. There began a wild,
deafening dispute, which lasted about an hour, in which all or
nearly all the members of that illustrious band of the regular
frequenters of the café took part. It bore a close resemblance
to the famous discussions of the Greeks without the walls of
Troy; there were the same sound and fury, the same primitive
simplicity in the arguments, the same undisguised and barbaric
directness in the statements and the epithets employed. Such
choice examples as this, for instance:-
“Could any man be more of an ass ? ) «Shut up, shut up,
you blockhead! ” – The ox opened his mouth, and what he said
was, 'moo-o. ) » — "I tell you, you are not within mile of the
truth; or if you want to hear it plainer, you lie. ” — “Great heav-
ens, what a goose-hissing! ” — “Any one would think you were a
cackling old woman. ”
Such altercations were of frequent, almost daily, occurrence
in that room of the café. As everybody taking part in them had
a direct, entirely primitive way of treating questions, like to or
identical with that of the heroes of Homer, the very positions
laid down at the beginning of the dispute always continued un-
changed to the end. Such or such a man would go through
the entire hour reiterating without pause, “No one has any right
1.
1
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林
ha
1
!
1
## p. 15212 (#156) ##########################################
15*12
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
to interfere in the private life of others;” another would cry,
“That might happen in Germany, if you please, but here we are
in Spain. ” A third was yet more brief, and would vociferate
whenever he got the least opening, and whether he got it or not,
“Moonshine! moonshine! stuff and nonsense ! » Thus he would
cry till he dropped half lifeless on a divan.
These arguments gained in intensity what they lost in breadth;
the statements were each time repeated with greater and more
devastating energy, and more strident voices, so that the day was
rare that some of the speakers did not depart from there with
his throat in such a state of hoarseness that he could scarcely be
heard. It was generally Álvaro Peña and Don Feliciano who
were found in that condition, - not because they really talked
the most, but because they had the weakest vocal organs.
If
the Town Council had directed the planting of trees on the
Riego Promenade — heated discussion in the café. If a trusted
employee of the house of Gonzalez & Sons had decamped with
fourteen thousand reals -discussion at the café. If the parish
priest refused to give the pilot Velasco a certificate of good
moral character — discussion at the café. Álvaro Peña took such a
lively part in this one that he burst a small blood-vessel.
No unpleasant feelings were ever left after them, nor was
it on record that any of them had ever resulted in a fight or a
duel. All seemed to have tacitly agreed to accept, as they be-
stowed, abusive epithets as above mentioned, and take no offense
at them.
VENTURITA WINS AWAY HER SISTER'S LOVER
From (El Cuarto Poder)
G
ONZALO, after a little chat with his betrothed, arose, took a
few turns up and down the long room, and went and sat
down beside Venturita. The young girl was drawing some
letters for embroidering.
"Don't make fun of them, Gonzalo: you know I draw badly,”
said she, her eyes flashing at him a brilliant, archly provoking
glance that made him lower his own.
"I do not admit that: you do not draw badly at all," he
responded, in a low voice that was slightly tremulous.
((
»
## p. 15213 (#157) ##########################################
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
15213
>>
IE
you. ”
12
«How polite!
You will admit that my drawing might be
better, at any rate. ”
“Better? better? - everything in this world might be better.
-
It is very good, I assure you. ”
«What a flatterer you're getting to be. But I won't have you
laughing at me, do you hear? You need not try it. ”
«I am not in the habit of laughing at folks — least of all at
He did not raise his eyes from the drawing-paper in her
lap, and his voice was yet lower and more unsteady.
Venturita's bewitching glance dwelt steadily upon him, and
there might be read in it the sense of triumph and gratified
pride.
"Here, you draw the letters yourself, Mr. Engineer,” she
said reaching the paper and pencil towards him with a charmingly
despotic manner.
The young man took them; lifted his gaze for an instant
to hers, but dropped it again, as if he feared an electric shock;
and began to draw. But instead of ornamental letters, it was a
woman's likeness that he depicted. First the hair ending in two
braids down her back, then the low charming forehead, then
a dainty nose, then a little mouth, then the admirably modeled
chin melting into the neck with soft and graceful curves. It
grew prodigiously like Venturita. While the girl, leaning close up
against the shoulder of her future brother-in-law, followed the
movements of the pencil, a smile of gratified vanity spread little
by little over her face.
When the portrait was finished,
she said in a roguish way, “Now put underneath it whom it is
meant to represent. ”
The draughtsman now raised his head, and the smiling glances
of the two met, as if with a shower of sparks. Then with a
swift, decisive movement, he wrote below the sketch:-
11
hi
It
«WHAT I LOVE DEAREST IN ALL THE WORLD »
1
(
Venturita took possession of the piece of paper, and gazed
at it a little while with delight; but next, feigning a disdainful
mien, she thrust it back towards him, saying, “Here, take it,
take it, humbug. I don't want it. ”
But before it could reach the hand of Gonzalo, his intended
playfully reached out hers and intercepted it, saying, “What mys-
terious papers are these ? ”
## p. 15214 (#158) ##########################################
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
15214
Venturita, as if she had been pricked with a sharp weapon,
sprang from her chair and forcibly grasped her sister's wrist.
“Give it to me, Cecilia! give it back! let it go,” she ex-
claimed; her countenance darting fire, though she tried to impose
upon it a forced smile.
[The amiable Cecilia yields it up. Venturita tears it in pieces. All are
astonished at her violence. Her mother orders her from the room, and la-
ments the waywardness of this younger daughter. Somewhat later Gonzalo,
sad and downcast, is about to leave the house. As he extends his hand to
the door, he notes that the cord that draws the latch is gently agitated from
above. ]
»
(
He stood a moment immovable. Again he reached towards
the latch, and again the mysterious motion from above was re-
peated. He went back and glanced up the staircase: from the
top landing a pretty blonde head smiled down at him.
"Do
you want me to go up ? ” he asked.
"No," she replied, but with an intonation that clearly meant,
“yes. ”
He immediately mounted the stairs on tiptoe.
“We can't stay here,” said Venturita: “they may see us.
Come along with me. ” And taking him by the hand, she led
him through the corridors to the dining-room.
Gonzalo dropped into a chair, but without loosing her hand.
“Why has my mother got to mortify me at every instant, and
before company ? ” she exclaimed. “If she thinks I will stand
it she is very much mistaken. There is no consideration in this
house except for that scapegrace brother of mine. ”
“Sweetheart, sweetheart, don't fly out at me.
precisely because you have a will and a temper of your own. I
have no fancy for women made of flour and water. ”
“I guess it's because you are one of that stuff yourself. ”
“Not so much as you may think. ”
"I can never imagine your getting angry with anybody. ”
“Oh, very well; if I am of that sort then it is very proper
that I should like amiable and tranquil women. ”
“Not at all, not at all,” she exclaimed, suddenly changing her
ground. « The blonde complexion likes the brunette, the fat the
thin, and the tall the short. Confess now, isn't it because I am
so little, and you so tall, that I please you?
“Yes, but by no means for that alone,” he said, laughing and
pulling her nearer to him.
I like you
(
((
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
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1
((
10
10
11
.
»
-
C
“For what else ? ) with one of her siren looks.
“Because you are so — homely. ”
-
“Thanks,” she replied, her whole fair countenance illuminated
with vanity.
"I suppose there is not a homelier one than you in Sarrió, or
in the entire world. ”
Still, you must have seen some homelier than I in your
travels abroad? The Virgin save us! what a monster of ugliness
I must be. ” And she laughed with all her heart at the flattery
contained in his reversed hyperboles.
“We are not — comfortable here,” said the young man nerv-
ously. “Some one might enter, or — even Cecilia. And what
excuse could I give ? ”
«No matter what excuse: that is the least thing to consider.
But if you are uneasy, we can go back to the drawing-room. ”
“Yes, let us go.
“Wait here an instant: I will go and see how the land lies. ”
But then, stopping at the door with a new idea that just entered
her head, she turned back and said, "If you would promise to be
very proper and formal, I would take you to my room. ”
« Word of honor,” he promised eagerly.
“No attempted kissing, you know, or silly nonsense of any
kind. ”
« Not a bit. ”
“You swear it ? »
“I do. ”
« Then stay here a little, and come up after me on the tips of
your toes. Good-by for about two minutes. ”
He took her hand at this brief parting, and kissed it.
“There, you see, you break your promise even before we
begin," she complained, affecting displeasure.
“But I didn't think that hands counted. ”
"Everything counts,” she retorted severely, but her eyes still
smiled at him.
(
»
(
1
— а
[The young girl's room is described, - a marvel of daintiness, luxury, and
good taste, personal to herself. Gonzalo exclaims:-)
« Oh, how much better this is than Cecilia's room ! »
« You have seen hers ? »
## p. 15216 (#160) ##########################################
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
(
“Yes: a few days ago she showed it to me, with its bare
walls, poor pictures, bed without draperies, and most common-
place bureau. ”
"Be good enough to sit down: you have grown tall enough. ”
“You did wrong to let me come up here,” he said.
«Why? what do you mean? ” and she affected surprise, open-
ing and shutting her bright eyes many times in succession, so
that the effect was like that play of heat-lightning that is observed
in the warm evenings of summer.
“Because I feel that I am ill. ”
« “You are ill? truly ? ” And now she opened her blue eyes
widely; without, for all that, succeeding in giving them an inno-
cent look.
"Yes, that is-yes, a little. ”
“Do you want me to call assistance ? »
“That would do no good, as it is your eyes that are making
all the trouble. ”
Oh, then I will shut them up,” she said, laughing merrily,
«Don't shut them up, don't shut them up, I beg of you. If
you do, I shall be infinitely worse. ”
«I see it is best, in that case, that I should go away. ”
"And that would simply be to have my death at your door.
Do you know why I think I am taken so ill ? Because, I sup-
I
pose, I cannot kiss down the lovely eyelids above those eyes that
stab me through the heart. ”
“Oh, indeed ? how badly off you are! ” she rejoined, mocking
him with the gayest laughter. "Well, I am sorry I cannot cure
“
(
you. ”
»
“Then you will allow me to die ? »
“Certainly, if you wish to. ”
But you will first let me imprint a kiss upon your delightful
hair, at least?
No indeed. ”
Your hands, then? ”
2
“No, not my hands either. ”
"Nothing of your belongings ? Oh, see how you make me
suffer, what fatal harm you are doing me. ”
“Here is a glove you may kiss, if you want to,” and she
tossed him one of her own that lay upon the dressing-table.
He pressed it to his lips repeatedly, with glowing ardor.
((
»
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15217
Disloyal, weak, a repellent character, as the critics like to say
of the personages in novels who are not monumentally heroic and
gifted with all the talents. But suppose the reader himself to be
placed in that position, face to face with the younger Señorita
Belinchon, receiving the meteor-like glances of her blue eyes,
and hearkening to a voice with both grave and honeyed inflections
that moved the very fibres of the soul, and suppose she should
toss him a glove of hers to kiss,- I should very much like to
hear in what severe terms he would decline the honor.
«Now let us speak seriously [said Venturita]; let us talk of
our situation. In spite of what you promised me three days
ago, I have not heard that you have yet spoken with mama or
papa, or even written to them. Quite the contrary, in fact: not
only you let the time pass, while every day makes things worse,
but you seem to show yourself even more devoted to Cecilia than
before. ”
Gonzalo denied this with a shake of the head.
« But I have seen you. If you do not love her, this conduct
towards her is very bad; and if you do love her, then your con-
duct towards me is infamous. ”
"Are you not yet sure that my heart is yours alone ? ” he
asked, his impassioned glance fixed upon her face.
«No. "
“Yes, yes, yes, it is; a thousand times yes. But I cannot be in
Cecilia's company and be harsh and indifferent with her. That
would be too dreadful. I would rather tell her what has hap-
pened and have done with it, once for all. ”
“Tell her, then. ”
«I dare not. ”
"Very well, don't tell her, then. You and I will break off all
that is between us. It will be better so, anyway,” said his fair
young companion tartly.
“For God's sake, Venturita, don't say that; don't talk that
way. You frighten me; you will make me think you don't
love me. You must understand that my position in all this is
strange, compromising, terrible. On the very point of marrying
a most estimable girl, without any fault on her part, without any
falling-out to serve a pretext, or any circumstance whatever
to forewarn her of such a thing, I am suddenly to say to her,
All is over between us, because I do not love you, and never
have loved you. ' Could any conduct be more brutal and odious ?
XXVI-952
1
11
(
(
as
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
And your parents, - how are they going to take my conduct ?
Most likely, after indignantly scoring me as I shall deserve, they
will order me out of their house, and never let me set foot in it
again. ”
"Very good, very good: then marry her, I say,- and I wish
you joy of her,” said Venturita, springing up very pale.
“Never! that will never be. I shall either marry you or
nobody else in all the wide world. ”
« Then what are we going to do ? ”
“Oh, I don't know, I don't know;” his head drooping in
abject sadness
A silence fell upon them for a moment, broken by Venturita,
who said, tapping lightly on his bowed head, “Rack your brains,
man; invent something. "
"I'm trying and trying, but nothing comes of it. "
"You are good for nothing. Come, you must go now.
leaving him an infant son. Marriage, birth, death, — what events
are more ordinary, yet what more momentous ? They are described
in Maximina' in a way that touches the chords of the deepest
and truest human feeling. El Cuarto Poder' (The Fourth Estate, or
The Press), 1888, takes its title from the founding of a newspaper
in a primitive little community; but the real scheme of the action
turns round the breaking off of an engagement between plain sincere
Cecilia and a steady-going young engineer, Gonzalo, by the machi-
nations of a pretty younger sister and arch-coquette, Venturita. The
opening chapter — where, on the occasion of a gala night at the thea-
tre, all the leading characters of the little place are introduced - is a
masterly piece of exposition and of social history. "La Hermana
"
San Sulpicio' (Sister San Sulpicio), 1889, is a gay, bright piece of
light comedy; showing how an engaging young novice, who has
mistaken her vocation in entering a convent, finds much more happi-
ness in leaving it and marrying her devoted suitor. Its scene is laid
at Seville; as that of the much less satisfactory (Los Majos de Cadiz'
(The Dandies of Cadiz), 1896, is at the more southern Andalusian city.
These are dandies of the lower class who wear short jackets and gay
sashes, and their social relations are unpleasant. In (La Fe' (Faith),
1892, an earnest young priest, Gil Lastra, undertakes to convert a
notorious skeptic, Montesinos, and is himself disastrously perverted.
El Origen del Pensamiento) (The Origin of Thought), 1894, appeared
in an English version — much mutilated, however - in an American
magazine. An erratic old man, Don Pantaleón, conceives the notion
that if he can only take off a portion of some one's skull, he can see
the actual process of the secretion of thought, and thus confer great
benefit on the human race. No other victim offering, he kidnaps a
sweet little grandchild of his own; but happily the child is rescued
in time — at the very last moment.
Many, or most, of these books have been translated into several
other languages, and have everywhere met with warm favor. There
are in a few of them incidents and personages treated with a freedom
more approximating that which French, rather than English, writers
allow themselves in certain matters; but it can truthfully be said
that the tone is everywhere one of exemplary morality. Regret and
reproach, not a Aippant levity, are the feelings made to attend the
contemplation of these scenes. Palacio Valdés is particularly happy
in his feminine types; above all, those of young girls just budding
into womanhood. Carmen, Marta, Rosa, Teresa, Maximina, Julita, Ven-
turita, and Sister San Sulpicio may be named; there is one or more
of them in almost every book. These, in their several ways, are all
depicted with a most natural and playful touch; they have the very
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essence of youth; they have a delicate charm, sensuous yet pure,
and they are not merely pretty to look at, but their talk scintillates
with intelligence. In some respects Valdés's women recall those of
Thomas Hardy, in other respects they are like Turgénieff's. In that
field he is unequaled by any Spanish contemporary.
11
William Henry Bishy
11
2
ME
[The following translations are from the original Spanish, by William Henry
Bishop, for (A Library of the World's Best Literature. ']
It
THE BELLE OF THE VILLAGE STORE
From (Señorito Octavio)
S"
a
1
He had just completed her eighteenth year; her skin was as
white as milk, her hair red as gold. Her mother was
blonde of the same type also, and yet the mother had never
passed for a beauty. Carmen's eyes were blue,- a deep dark
blue, like that of the sea; and one's imagination plunged into
their mysterious depths, and fancied he might find there palaces
of crystal and enchanting gardens, as in the hidden caves of
ocean. It seemed scarcely credible that such a rosebud was the
daughter of that rough pig of a Don Marcelino. While yet a
a
child, they had been wont to call her “The Little Angel. ” She
used to be much put out over it, too, and would run home to
the house weeping when, on the letting out of school, the child-
ren would follow her, giving her this complimentary nickname.
And in fact it would be difficult to imagine anything sweeter,
more charming, in the ethereal unworldly way, than Carmen
had been at twelve years old. On arriving at woman's estate,
the “angel” in her had become somewhat obscured; that celes-
tial epithet had been a little shorn of its accuracy. Yet nothing
had been lost by the change; for to the gloriously pure, sweet
lines of the girlish figure had been added certain terrestrial con-
tours and material roundnesses that became her to a marvel.
I confess a liking for women with this mingling of heaven
and earth; there is nothing that approaches it in thorough fasci-
nation. Hence it has happened to me, not merely once but many
times, in the course of this narration, to fancy, myself throwing
down my pen, and introducing myself among the minor person-
ages of the story, for the pure pleasure of paying court with
1
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
the rest to the lovely daughter of Don Marcelino. Suppose now
that she had not given me the mitten; - anything whatever, you
know, is within the field of supposition, and yet it is a bold one;
for, even apart from the aforesaid winning curves, it was stated
in Vegalora that she had a very pretty fortune of her own. If
Don Marcelino had accepted me for a son-in-law, I should have
been at the present moment a clerk, measuring off cotton or
percale by the yard, or at your service generally for whatever
you might please to command, in his accredited establishment.
In this way I should at any rate have escaped the humiliation and
martyrdom that fall to the lot, in Spain, of the luckless wight
who may, like myself, devote himself to letters or the fine arts
with more liking for them than capacity; though it is true, there
might have fallen upon my head other evils, of a sort from
which I pray heaven to save all of you now and forever, amen!
But then who would have written this veracious history of
Señorito Octavio ? Galdós, Alarcón, and Valera are occupied with
more august matters; and I am certain besides that they have
never even set foot in the shop of Don Marcelino.
While as
for me, in all that relates to Vegalora, and also its district for
six leagues all around, I assert — though this kind of talk may
appear over-bold and conceited to some that there is not another
novelist who is worthy to loose the latchet of my shoe, in respect
of knowing absolutely everything about it.
MARIA'S WAY TO PERFECTION
From Marta y Maria)
0"
NE evening, after the retirement of the family and servants,
mistress and maid were together in Maria's boudoir up in
the tower. Maria was reading by the light of the polished
metal astral lamp, while Genoveva was sitting in another chair
in front of her, knitting a stocking. They would often pass an
hour or two thus before going to bed, the señorita having been
long accustomed to read to the small hours of the morning.
She did not seem so much occupied as usual with her read-
ing; but would frequently put the book on the table and remain
pensive for a while, her cheek resting on her hand. She would
take it up in a hesitating way, but only presently to lay it down
again. It was evident too by the creaking chair, as she often
changed position, that she was nervous. From time to time she
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»
would fix upon Genoveva a long gaze, that seemed to betray a
timid and uneasy desire, and a certain inward conflict with some
thought striving for utterance. On the other hand, Genoveva,
that evening, was more engrossed than usual with her stocking;
weaving in among its meshes, no doubt, a multitude of more or
less philosophical considerations that made it desirable for her to
give convulsive nods every now and then, very much as when one
is going to sleep.
At last the señorita concluded to break the silence.
"Genoveva, will you read for me this passage from the life of
St. Isabel ? ” she asked, handing her the book.
“With all the pleasure in the world, señorita. ”
"See, begin here where it says: When her husband) »
Genoveva commenced to read the paragraph to herself, but
Maria quickly interrupted her with -
"No, no: read it aloud. ”
(Thereupon the maid reads a passage of some twenty lines, in the char-
acteristic pious and mystical style of the Bollandist Lives of the Saints. The
gist of it is that the young and lovely princess and saint, Isabel, would pass
ber nights and days in the practice of the most austere penances. Of these
the wearing a hair-cloth shirt, and having herself scourged with the discipline
by her damsels, were a portion. ]
«That will do: you need not read any further.
What do you
think of it ? »
"I have often read the identical story before. ”
“Yes, so you have. But- now what would you think of my
trying to do something of the same kind ? ” she burst forth,
with the impetuosity of one who has decided to give utterance to
a thought with which she has long been preoccupied.
Genoveva stared at her with wide-open eyes, not taking in her
meaning
"Do you not understand ? »
"No, señorita. ”
Maria arose, and throwing her arms around her neck, with face
aflame with blushes, whispered close in her ear:-
"I mean, you silly thing, that if you would consent to do
the office of those damsels of St. Isabel to-night, I for my part
would imitate the saint. ”
« What office ? "
“Oh, you stupid, stupid thing! I mean that of giving me
a few lashes, in commemoration of those that our dear Savior
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
received, and all the saints as well, patterning themselves after
him. ”
“What are you saying, señorita ? What put such a thing in
your head ? »
“I have thought of it because I wish to mortify my flesh,
and humiliate myself, at one and the same time. That is true
penance, and the kind that is most pleasing in the eyes of God,
for the reason that he himself suffered it for us. I have tried
to perform it unaided, but I have not been able to; and besides,
it is not so effective a humiliation as receiving it from the hands
of another. Now you will be so obliging as to gratify this desire
of mine, won't you? ”
"No, señorita, not for anything. I cannot do it. ”
“Why won't you, silly thing? Don't you see that it is for
my good ? If I should fail to deliver myself from some days of
purgatory because you would not do what I ask you, would you
not be troubled with remorse ? »
"But, my heart's dove, how could I make up my mind to
maltreat you, even if it were for your soul's good ? ”
« There is no way for you to get out of it: it is a vow I have
made, and I must fulfill it. You have aided me till now on my
way to virtue: do not abandon me at the most critical moment.
You will not, Genoveva dear; say you will not. ”
“For God's sake, señorita, do not make me do this! »
« Do, do, dearest Genoveva, I beg of you by the love that you
bear me. ”
“No, no, do not ask it of me: I cannot. ”
“Please do, darling! Oh, grant me this favor. You don't
know how I shall feel if you don't; I shall think that you have
ceased to love me. ”
Maria exhausted all her resources of invention and coaxing
to persuade her. Seating herself on Genoveva's lap, she lay-
ished upon her caresses and words of affection; at one moment
vexed, at another imploring, and all the time fixing upon her
a pair of wheedling eyes, which it seemed impossible to resist.
She was like a child begging for a toy that is kept back from
her.
When she saw that her serving-maid was a little softened,
- or rather was fatigued with persistent refusing, - she said with
a taking volubility: -
“Now, truly, stupid, don't you go and make it a thing of such
great importance. It isn't half as bad as a bad toothache, and
>
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you know I've suffered from that pretty often. Your imagina-
tion makes you think it is something terrible, when really it is
scarcely worth mentioning. You think so just because it isn't
the custom now, for true piety seems banished from the world;
but in the good old religious days it was a most ordinary and
commonplace affair, - no one who pretended to be a good
Christian neglected to do this kind of penance. Come now, get
ready to give me this pleasure that I ask of you, and at the
same time to perform a good work. Wait a minute: I'll bring
what we want. ”
And running to the bureau, she pulled out of a drawer a
scourge,-a veritable scourge, with a turned-wood handle and
leathern thongs. Then, all in a tremor of excitement and nerv.
ousness, that set her cheeks ablaze, she returned to Genoveva
and put it in her hand. The maid took it in an automatic way,
scarce knowing what she did. She was completely dazed. The
fair young girl began anew to caress her, and give her heart
with persuasive words, to which she did not answer a syllable.
Then the Señorita de Elorza, with tremulous hand, began to let
loose the dainty blue-silk wrapper she wore. There shone on
her face the anxious, excited foretaste of joy in the caprice which
was about to be gratified. Her eyes glowed with an unwonted
light, showing within their depths the expectation of vivid and
mysterious pleasures. Her lips were as dry as those of one
parched with thirst. The circle of shadow around her eyes had
increased, and two hectic spots of crimson burned in her cheeks.
Her breath came with agitated tremor through her nostrils, more
widely dilated than was usual. Her white, patrician hands, with
their taper fingers and rosy nails, loosed with strange speed the
fastenings of her gown. With a quick movement she shook it off,
and stood free.
“You shall see that I mean it,” she said: “I have almost
nothing on. I had prepared myself already. ”
In truth the next moment she took off, or rather tore off, a
skirt, and remained only in her chemise.
She stood so an instant; cast a glance at the implement of
torture in Genoveva's hand; and over her body ran a little shiver,
compounded of cold, pleasure, anguish, affright, and anxious ex-
pectation, all in one. In a low voice, changed from its usual
tones by emotion, she appealed:-
" Papa must not know of this. ”
1
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
And the light stuff of the chemise slipped down along her
body, caught for an instant on the hips, then sank slowly to the
floor. She remained nude. Genoveva contemplated her with
eyes that could not withhold admiration as well as reverence, and
the girl felt herself a little abashed.
“You are not going to be angry with me, Genoveva dear,
are you? ”
The waiting-maid could only say, “For God's sake, señor-
ita! »
“The sooner the better, now, for I shall take cold. ”
By this consideration she wished to constrain the woman
still more forcibly to the task. With a feverish movement she
snatched the scourge from her left hand and put it in her right;
then throwing her arms again around her neck, and kissing her,
she said, very low and affecting a jocose tone:-
“ You are to lay it on hard, Genovita; for thus I have prom-
ised God that it should be done. "
A violent trembling possessed her body as she uttered these
words: but it was a delicious kind of trembling that penetrated
to the very marrow of her bones. Then taking Genoveva by the
hand, she pulled her along a little towards the table on which
stood the effigy of the Savior.
“It must be here, on my knees before our Lord. ”
Her voice choked up in her throat. She was pale.
She
bowed humbly before the image; made the sign of the cross
rapidly; crossed her hands over her virginal breast; and turning
her face, sweetly smiling, towards her maid, said, “Now you can
begin. "
“Señorita, for God's sake! ” once more exclaimed Genoveva,
»
overwhelmed with confusion.
From the eyes of the señorita flashed a gleam of anger, which
died away on the instant; but she said in a tone of some slight
irritation, “Have we agreed upon this or not? Obey me, and do
not be obstinate. ”
The maid, dominated by authority, and convinced too that
she was furthering a work of piety, now at length obeyed, and
began to ply the scourge, but very gently, on the naked shoulders
of her young mistress.
The first blows were so soft and inoffensive that they left
no trace at all on that precious skin. Maria grew irritable, and
demanded that they be more forcibly given.
.
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11
it
1
“No, not like that; harder! harder! ” she insisted. « But first
wait a moment till I take off this jewelry: it is ridiculous at
such a time. ”
And she swiftly pulled off the rings from her fingers, snatched
the pendants from her ears, and then laid the handful of gold
and gems at the foot of the effigy of Jesus. In like manner
St. Isabel, when she went to pray in the church, was used to
deposit her ducal coronet on the altar.
She resumed the same humble posture; and Genoveva, seeing
that there was no escape, began to lacerate the flesh of her pious
mistress without mercy. The lamplight shed a soft radiance
throughout the room. The gems lying at the feet of the Savior
alone caught it sharply, and Aung out a play of subtle gleams
and scintillations. The silence at that hour was absolute; not
even the sighing of a breath of wind in the casements was heard.
An atmosphere of mystery and unworldly seclusion filled the
room, which transported Maria out of herself, and intoxicated
her with pleasure. Her lovely naked body quivered each time
that the curling strokes of the lash fell upon it, with a pain
not free from voluptuous delight. She laid her head against the
Redeemer's feet, breathing eagerly, and with a sense of oppres-
sion; and she felt the blood beating with singular violence in her
temples, while the delicate fluff of hair growing at the nape of
the neck rose slightly with the magnetism of the extreme emo-
tion that possessed her. From time to time her pale, trembling
lips would murmur, Go on! go on! ”
The scourge had raised not a few stripes of roseate hue on
her snowy white skin, and she did not ask for truce. But the
instant came when the implement of torture drew a drop of
blood. Genoveva could not contain herself longer; she threw
the barbarous scourge far from her, and weeping aloud, caught
the señorita in her arms, covered her with affectionate kisses, and
begged her by her soul's sake never to make her recommence
the perpetration of such atrocities. Maria tried to console her,
assuring her that the whipping had hurt her very little. And
now, her ardor a little cooled, her ascetic impulses somewhat
appeased, the young mistress dismissed her servant, and went
to her bedroom to retire to rest.
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A FRIENDLY ARGUMENT IN THE CAFÉ DE LA MARINA
From (El Cuarto Poder)
"
W"
HEN Don Melchior and his nephew entered the café, Gabino
Maza, on his feet, was gesticulating actively in the midst ·
of a little circle. He could not keep his seat two minutes
at a time. His excitable temperament, and the eagerness with
which he undertook to convince his audience, brought it about
that he would continually spring from his seat and dash into the
middle of the floor; and there he would shout and swing his
arms about till he had to stop for very want of strength and
breath. The subject of discussion was the opera company, which
had announced its approaching departure on account of having
lost money, in its subscription season of thirty performances.
Maza was arguing that the company had met with no such losses,
but that on the contrary the whole thing was a pretext and a
trick.
“I deny it, I deny it,” he vociferated. “Anybody who says
they have lost a farthing is a liar. — How are you, Gonzalo ? ”
to the younger man of the new arrivals: how's your health ? I
heard yesterday you were back. You're looking first-rate. — He's
a liar," he resumed, at the same pitch of violence. "I repeat it,
and I wager none of them would have the face to come to me
with that yarn. "
"According to the figures the baritone showed me, they have
lost thirty thousand reals ($1,500] in the thirty performances,”
said his friend Don Mateo.
Maza all but ground his teeth; indignation scarcely let him
speak.
"And
you
attach any
credit to what that toper says, Don
Mateo ? ” he managed to get out. Come, see
here now,”
with affected scorn, - "by dint of associating with actors, you'll
be forgetting your own occupation soon, like the smith they tell
about in the story. ”
“Listen, you madcap: I have not said I believed him, have I?
All I say is that that is the way it figures out, from what the
baritone told me. ”
Maza, who had approached quite near, now sprang violently
backward again, took up a position anew in the middle of the
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
152FI
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room, snatched off his hat, and holding it in both hands to ges-
ticulate with, vociferated frantically:-
“Stop there! stop there! don't go a step further. Do they
take us for a lot of simple fedgelings just out of the nest ? Now
listen to me. Just tell me what they have done with the twenty
thousand and odd reals the subscription brought them, and the
nearly equal amount they must have taken in at the box-office. ”
“Well, for one thing, they have to pay very high salaries. ”
« Don't be a donkey, Álvaro; for the Holy Virgin's sake, try
and not be a donkey. I'll tell you exactly what salaries they
pay. The tenor - checking off on his fingers — «six dollars a
day; the soprano six more, - that makes twelve; the bass, four-
-
sixteen; the contralto, three — nineteen; the baritone, four - »
The baritone, five,” corrected Peña.
“The baritone, four," insisted Maza with fury.
"I am certain it is five. ”
« The baritone, four,” shouted Maza anew.
Upon this, Álvaro Peña arose in his turn, raising his voice
too, and, burning with a noble desire for victory, undertook to
convince or shout down his opponent. There began a wild,
deafening dispute, which lasted about an hour, in which all or
nearly all the members of that illustrious band of the regular
frequenters of the café took part. It bore a close resemblance
to the famous discussions of the Greeks without the walls of
Troy; there were the same sound and fury, the same primitive
simplicity in the arguments, the same undisguised and barbaric
directness in the statements and the epithets employed. Such
choice examples as this, for instance:-
“Could any man be more of an ass ? ) «Shut up, shut up,
you blockhead! ” – The ox opened his mouth, and what he said
was, 'moo-o. ) » — "I tell you, you are not within mile of the
truth; or if you want to hear it plainer, you lie. ” — “Great heav-
ens, what a goose-hissing! ” — “Any one would think you were a
cackling old woman. ”
Such altercations were of frequent, almost daily, occurrence
in that room of the café. As everybody taking part in them had
a direct, entirely primitive way of treating questions, like to or
identical with that of the heroes of Homer, the very positions
laid down at the beginning of the dispute always continued un-
changed to the end. Such or such a man would go through
the entire hour reiterating without pause, “No one has any right
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
to interfere in the private life of others;” another would cry,
“That might happen in Germany, if you please, but here we are
in Spain. ” A third was yet more brief, and would vociferate
whenever he got the least opening, and whether he got it or not,
“Moonshine! moonshine! stuff and nonsense ! » Thus he would
cry till he dropped half lifeless on a divan.
These arguments gained in intensity what they lost in breadth;
the statements were each time repeated with greater and more
devastating energy, and more strident voices, so that the day was
rare that some of the speakers did not depart from there with
his throat in such a state of hoarseness that he could scarcely be
heard. It was generally Álvaro Peña and Don Feliciano who
were found in that condition, - not because they really talked
the most, but because they had the weakest vocal organs.
If
the Town Council had directed the planting of trees on the
Riego Promenade — heated discussion in the café. If a trusted
employee of the house of Gonzalez & Sons had decamped with
fourteen thousand reals -discussion at the café. If the parish
priest refused to give the pilot Velasco a certificate of good
moral character — discussion at the café. Álvaro Peña took such a
lively part in this one that he burst a small blood-vessel.
No unpleasant feelings were ever left after them, nor was
it on record that any of them had ever resulted in a fight or a
duel. All seemed to have tacitly agreed to accept, as they be-
stowed, abusive epithets as above mentioned, and take no offense
at them.
VENTURITA WINS AWAY HER SISTER'S LOVER
From (El Cuarto Poder)
G
ONZALO, after a little chat with his betrothed, arose, took a
few turns up and down the long room, and went and sat
down beside Venturita. The young girl was drawing some
letters for embroidering.
"Don't make fun of them, Gonzalo: you know I draw badly,”
said she, her eyes flashing at him a brilliant, archly provoking
glance that made him lower his own.
"I do not admit that: you do not draw badly at all," he
responded, in a low voice that was slightly tremulous.
((
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
15213
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you. ”
12
«How polite!
You will admit that my drawing might be
better, at any rate. ”
“Better? better? - everything in this world might be better.
-
It is very good, I assure you. ”
«What a flatterer you're getting to be. But I won't have you
laughing at me, do you hear? You need not try it. ”
«I am not in the habit of laughing at folks — least of all at
He did not raise his eyes from the drawing-paper in her
lap, and his voice was yet lower and more unsteady.
Venturita's bewitching glance dwelt steadily upon him, and
there might be read in it the sense of triumph and gratified
pride.
"Here, you draw the letters yourself, Mr. Engineer,” she
said reaching the paper and pencil towards him with a charmingly
despotic manner.
The young man took them; lifted his gaze for an instant
to hers, but dropped it again, as if he feared an electric shock;
and began to draw. But instead of ornamental letters, it was a
woman's likeness that he depicted. First the hair ending in two
braids down her back, then the low charming forehead, then
a dainty nose, then a little mouth, then the admirably modeled
chin melting into the neck with soft and graceful curves. It
grew prodigiously like Venturita. While the girl, leaning close up
against the shoulder of her future brother-in-law, followed the
movements of the pencil, a smile of gratified vanity spread little
by little over her face.
When the portrait was finished,
she said in a roguish way, “Now put underneath it whom it is
meant to represent. ”
The draughtsman now raised his head, and the smiling glances
of the two met, as if with a shower of sparks. Then with a
swift, decisive movement, he wrote below the sketch:-
11
hi
It
«WHAT I LOVE DEAREST IN ALL THE WORLD »
1
(
Venturita took possession of the piece of paper, and gazed
at it a little while with delight; but next, feigning a disdainful
mien, she thrust it back towards him, saying, “Here, take it,
take it, humbug. I don't want it. ”
But before it could reach the hand of Gonzalo, his intended
playfully reached out hers and intercepted it, saying, “What mys-
terious papers are these ? ”
## p. 15214 (#158) ##########################################
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
15214
Venturita, as if she had been pricked with a sharp weapon,
sprang from her chair and forcibly grasped her sister's wrist.
“Give it to me, Cecilia! give it back! let it go,” she ex-
claimed; her countenance darting fire, though she tried to impose
upon it a forced smile.
[The amiable Cecilia yields it up. Venturita tears it in pieces. All are
astonished at her violence. Her mother orders her from the room, and la-
ments the waywardness of this younger daughter. Somewhat later Gonzalo,
sad and downcast, is about to leave the house. As he extends his hand to
the door, he notes that the cord that draws the latch is gently agitated from
above. ]
»
(
He stood a moment immovable. Again he reached towards
the latch, and again the mysterious motion from above was re-
peated. He went back and glanced up the staircase: from the
top landing a pretty blonde head smiled down at him.
"Do
you want me to go up ? ” he asked.
"No," she replied, but with an intonation that clearly meant,
“yes. ”
He immediately mounted the stairs on tiptoe.
“We can't stay here,” said Venturita: “they may see us.
Come along with me. ” And taking him by the hand, she led
him through the corridors to the dining-room.
Gonzalo dropped into a chair, but without loosing her hand.
“Why has my mother got to mortify me at every instant, and
before company ? ” she exclaimed. “If she thinks I will stand
it she is very much mistaken. There is no consideration in this
house except for that scapegrace brother of mine. ”
“Sweetheart, sweetheart, don't fly out at me.
precisely because you have a will and a temper of your own. I
have no fancy for women made of flour and water. ”
“I guess it's because you are one of that stuff yourself. ”
“Not so much as you may think. ”
"I can never imagine your getting angry with anybody. ”
“Oh, very well; if I am of that sort then it is very proper
that I should like amiable and tranquil women. ”
“Not at all, not at all,” she exclaimed, suddenly changing her
ground. « The blonde complexion likes the brunette, the fat the
thin, and the tall the short. Confess now, isn't it because I am
so little, and you so tall, that I please you?
“Yes, but by no means for that alone,” he said, laughing and
pulling her nearer to him.
I like you
(
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
15215
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“For what else ? ) with one of her siren looks.
“Because you are so — homely. ”
-
“Thanks,” she replied, her whole fair countenance illuminated
with vanity.
"I suppose there is not a homelier one than you in Sarrió, or
in the entire world. ”
Still, you must have seen some homelier than I in your
travels abroad? The Virgin save us! what a monster of ugliness
I must be. ” And she laughed with all her heart at the flattery
contained in his reversed hyperboles.
“We are not — comfortable here,” said the young man nerv-
ously. “Some one might enter, or — even Cecilia. And what
excuse could I give ? ”
«No matter what excuse: that is the least thing to consider.
But if you are uneasy, we can go back to the drawing-room. ”
“Yes, let us go.
“Wait here an instant: I will go and see how the land lies. ”
But then, stopping at the door with a new idea that just entered
her head, she turned back and said, "If you would promise to be
very proper and formal, I would take you to my room. ”
« Word of honor,” he promised eagerly.
“No attempted kissing, you know, or silly nonsense of any
kind. ”
« Not a bit. ”
“You swear it ? »
“I do. ”
« Then stay here a little, and come up after me on the tips of
your toes. Good-by for about two minutes. ”
He took her hand at this brief parting, and kissed it.
“There, you see, you break your promise even before we
begin," she complained, affecting displeasure.
“But I didn't think that hands counted. ”
"Everything counts,” she retorted severely, but her eyes still
smiled at him.
(
»
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[The young girl's room is described, - a marvel of daintiness, luxury, and
good taste, personal to herself. Gonzalo exclaims:-)
« Oh, how much better this is than Cecilia's room ! »
« You have seen hers ? »
## p. 15216 (#160) ##########################################
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
(
“Yes: a few days ago she showed it to me, with its bare
walls, poor pictures, bed without draperies, and most common-
place bureau. ”
"Be good enough to sit down: you have grown tall enough. ”
“You did wrong to let me come up here,” he said.
«Why? what do you mean? ” and she affected surprise, open-
ing and shutting her bright eyes many times in succession, so
that the effect was like that play of heat-lightning that is observed
in the warm evenings of summer.
“Because I feel that I am ill. ”
« “You are ill? truly ? ” And now she opened her blue eyes
widely; without, for all that, succeeding in giving them an inno-
cent look.
"Yes, that is-yes, a little. ”
“Do you want me to call assistance ? »
“That would do no good, as it is your eyes that are making
all the trouble. ”
Oh, then I will shut them up,” she said, laughing merrily,
«Don't shut them up, don't shut them up, I beg of you. If
you do, I shall be infinitely worse. ”
«I see it is best, in that case, that I should go away. ”
"And that would simply be to have my death at your door.
Do you know why I think I am taken so ill ? Because, I sup-
I
pose, I cannot kiss down the lovely eyelids above those eyes that
stab me through the heart. ”
“Oh, indeed ? how badly off you are! ” she rejoined, mocking
him with the gayest laughter. "Well, I am sorry I cannot cure
“
(
you. ”
»
“Then you will allow me to die ? »
“Certainly, if you wish to. ”
But you will first let me imprint a kiss upon your delightful
hair, at least?
No indeed. ”
Your hands, then? ”
2
“No, not my hands either. ”
"Nothing of your belongings ? Oh, see how you make me
suffer, what fatal harm you are doing me. ”
“Here is a glove you may kiss, if you want to,” and she
tossed him one of her own that lay upon the dressing-table.
He pressed it to his lips repeatedly, with glowing ardor.
((
»
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15217
Disloyal, weak, a repellent character, as the critics like to say
of the personages in novels who are not monumentally heroic and
gifted with all the talents. But suppose the reader himself to be
placed in that position, face to face with the younger Señorita
Belinchon, receiving the meteor-like glances of her blue eyes,
and hearkening to a voice with both grave and honeyed inflections
that moved the very fibres of the soul, and suppose she should
toss him a glove of hers to kiss,- I should very much like to
hear in what severe terms he would decline the honor.
«Now let us speak seriously [said Venturita]; let us talk of
our situation. In spite of what you promised me three days
ago, I have not heard that you have yet spoken with mama or
papa, or even written to them. Quite the contrary, in fact: not
only you let the time pass, while every day makes things worse,
but you seem to show yourself even more devoted to Cecilia than
before. ”
Gonzalo denied this with a shake of the head.
« But I have seen you. If you do not love her, this conduct
towards her is very bad; and if you do love her, then your con-
duct towards me is infamous. ”
"Are you not yet sure that my heart is yours alone ? ” he
asked, his impassioned glance fixed upon her face.
«No. "
“Yes, yes, yes, it is; a thousand times yes. But I cannot be in
Cecilia's company and be harsh and indifferent with her. That
would be too dreadful. I would rather tell her what has hap-
pened and have done with it, once for all. ”
“Tell her, then. ”
«I dare not. ”
"Very well, don't tell her, then. You and I will break off all
that is between us. It will be better so, anyway,” said his fair
young companion tartly.
“For God's sake, Venturita, don't say that; don't talk that
way. You frighten me; you will make me think you don't
love me. You must understand that my position in all this is
strange, compromising, terrible. On the very point of marrying
a most estimable girl, without any fault on her part, without any
falling-out to serve a pretext, or any circumstance whatever
to forewarn her of such a thing, I am suddenly to say to her,
All is over between us, because I do not love you, and never
have loved you. ' Could any conduct be more brutal and odious ?
XXVI-952
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ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS
And your parents, - how are they going to take my conduct ?
Most likely, after indignantly scoring me as I shall deserve, they
will order me out of their house, and never let me set foot in it
again. ”
"Very good, very good: then marry her, I say,- and I wish
you joy of her,” said Venturita, springing up very pale.
“Never! that will never be. I shall either marry you or
nobody else in all the wide world. ”
« Then what are we going to do ? ”
“Oh, I don't know, I don't know;” his head drooping in
abject sadness
A silence fell upon them for a moment, broken by Venturita,
who said, tapping lightly on his bowed head, “Rack your brains,
man; invent something. "
"I'm trying and trying, but nothing comes of it. "
"You are good for nothing. Come, you must go now.
