“And what have you been doing all day? Tell me.”

“I think, my dear Alzugaray,” said CÆsar, “that I can say, like my namesake Julius: ‘Veni, vidi, vice.’”

“The devil! The first day?”

“Yes.”

“Show me. What happened?”

“I left the house and entered the cafÉ downstairs. There was no one there but a small boy, from whom I ordered a bottle of beer and asked if there was a newspaper published here. He told me yes, the Castro Mail, an independent weekly. I bade him fetch me a copy, even an old one, and he brought me these two. I gave them a glance, and then, as if it didn’t interest me much, I questioned the lad about Don Calixto.

“The first impression I obtained was that Don Calixto is the most influential person in the town; the second, that besides him, either with him or against him, there is a SeÑor Don PlatÓn PeribÁÑez, almost as influential as Don Calixto. Afterwards I read the two numbers of the Castro periodical attentively, and from this reading I gathered that there is a somewhat hazy question here about an Asylum, where it seems some irregularities have been committed. There is a Republican book-dealer, who is a member of the Council, and on whom the Workmen’s Club depends, and he has asked for information as to the facts from the Municipality, and the followers of Don Calixto and of Don PlatÓn oppose this suggestion as an attack on the good-birth, the honour, and the reputation of such respectable personages.

“Having verified these pieces of news, which are of interest for me, I packed off to church and heard the whole eleven o’clock mass.”

“Mighty good! You are quite a man.”

“Mass ended, I went over to the Baptistery arch and stood there examining it, as if I felt the most terrible symptoms of enthusiasm for carved stone. Afterwards I went into the big chapel, which serves also as a pantheon for the Dukes of Castro Duro, whose tombs you find in the side niches of the presbytery. These niches are decorated with an efflorescence of Gothic, which is most gay and pretty, and among all this stone filigree you see the recumbent statues of a number of knights and one bishop, who to judge by his sword must have been a warrior too.

“Nobody remained in the church; the priest, a nice old man, fixed his eyes on me and asked me what I thought of the arch. And having prepared my lesson, I talked about the Romanesque of the XII and XIII Centuries like a professor, and then he took me into the sacristy and showed me two paintings on wood which I told him were XV Century.

“‘So they say,’ the priest agreed. ‘Do you think they are Italian or German?’

“‘Italian certainly, North Italian.’ I might as well have said South German, but I had to decide for something.

“‘And they must be worth...? he then asked me with eagerness.

“‘My dear man; according,’ I told him. ‘A dealer would offer you a hundred or two hundred pesetas apiece. In London or New York, well placed, they might be worth twenty or thirty thousand francs.’

“The ‘pater’ shot fire out of his eyes.

“‘And what would one have to do about it?’ he asked me.

“‘My dear man, I think one would have to take some good photographs and send them to various trades-people and to the museums in the United States.’

“‘Would it be necessary to write in English?’

“‘Yes, it would be the most practical thing.’ “‘I don’t think there is anybody here that knows how....’

“‘I would do it, with great pleasure.’

“‘But are you going to be here for some time?’

“‘Yes, it is probable.’

“He asked me what I came to Castro Duro for, and I told him that I had no other object than to visit Don Calixto GarcÍa Guerrero.

“Astonishment on the priest’s face.

“‘You know him?’

“‘Yes, I met him in Rome.’

“‘Do you know where he lives?’

“‘No.’

“‘Then I will take you.’

“The priest and I went out into the street. He wanted to give me the sidewalk, and I opposed that as if it were a crime. He told me he was more accustomed than I to walking on the cobble-stones; and finally, he on the sidewalk and I in the gutter, we arrived at Don Calixto’s house.”

“Was he at home?” asked Alzugaray.

“Yes,” said CÆsar. “By the way, on the road there we bowed to the present Deputy to the Cortes, he who will be my opponent in the approaching election, SeÑor GarcÍa Padilla.”

“Dear man! What a coincidence! What sort is he?”

“He is tall, with a reddish aquiline nose, a greyish moustache, full of cosmetic, a poor type.”

“He is a Liberal?”

“Yes, he is a Liberal, because Don Calixto is a Conservative. In his heart, nothing.”

“Good. Go on.”

DON CALIXTO AT HOME

“As I was saying, Don Calixto was at home, in a large room on the ground floor, which serves as his office. Don Calixto is a tall, supple man, with the blackest of hair which is beginning to turn white on the temples, and a white moustache. He is at the romantic age of illusions, of hopes....” “How old is he?” asked Alzugaray.

“He isn’t more than fifty-four,” CÆsar replied, sarcastically. “Don Calixto dresses in black, very fastidiously, and the effect is smart, but smacks of the notary. No matter what pains he takes to appear graceful and easy in manner, he doesn’t achieve the result; he has the inbred humility of one who has taken orders in a shop, either as a lad or as a man.

“Don Calixto received me with great amiability, but with a certain air of reserve, as if to say: ‘In Rome I was a merry comrade to you, here I am a personage.’ We chatted about a lot of things, and before he could ask me what I wanted, I pulled out the letter and handed it to him. The old man put on his glasses, read attentively, and said:

“‘Very good, very good; we will discuss it later.’

“The priest of course thought that he was in the way, and he left.

“When we were alone, Don Calixto said:

“‘All right, CÆsar, I am happy to see you. I see that you remember our conversation in Rome. You must have lunch with me and my family.’

“‘With great pleasure.’

“‘I’ll go and tell them to put on another place.’

“Don Calixto went out and left me alone. For a while I studied the boss’s office. On the wall, diplomas, appointments, in looking-glass frames; a genealogical tree, probably drawn day before yesterday; in a book-case, legal books...

“Don Calixto came back; he asked me if I was tired, and I told him no, and when we had crossed the whole width of the house, which is huge, he showed me the garden. My boy, what a wonderful spot! It hangs over the river and it is a marvel. The highest part, which is the part they keep up, isn’t worth much; it is in lamentable style; just imagine, there is a fountain which is a tin negro that spurts out water from all parts.

“However, the old part of the garden, the lower part, is lovely. There is a big tower standing guard over the river, now converted into a belvedere, with pomegranates, rose-bushes, and climbing plants all around it, and above all, there is an oleander that is a marvel...; it looks like a fire-work castle or a shower of flowers.”

“Leave that point,” said Alzugaray. “You are talking like a poor disciple of Ruskin’s.”

“You are right. But when you see those gardens, you will be enthusiastic, too.”

“Get ahead.”

THE POLITICAL POWERS OF CASTRO

“During our promenade Don Calixto talked to me of the immense good he has done for the town and of the ingratitude he constantly receives for it.

“While I listened, I recalled a little periodical in Madrid which had no other object than to furnish bombs at reasonable prices, and which said, speaking of a manufacturer in Catalonia: ‘SeÑor So-and-so is the most powerful boss in the province of Tarragona, and even at that there are those who dispute his bossdom.’

“Don Calixto is astonished that when he has done the Castrians the honour to make them loans at eighty or ninety percent, they are not fond of him. After the garden we saw the house; I won’t tell you anything about it, I don’t want you to accuse me again of being a Ruskinian.

“When we reached the dining-room Don Calixto said: ‘I am going to present you to my family.’

“Thereupon, entrance, ceremonies, bows on my part, smiles... toute la lyre. Don Calixto’s wife is an insignificant fat woman; the two daughters insipid, ungainly, not at all pretty; and with them was a little girl of about fifteen or sixteen, a niece of Don Calixto’s, a veritable little devil, named Amparo. This Amparo is a tiny, flat-faced creature, with black eyes, and extraordinarily vivacious and mischievous. During dinner I succeeded in irritating the child.

“I talked gravely with Don Calixto and his wife and daughters about Madrid, about the theatrical companies that come to this town, about their acquaintances at the Capital.

“The child interrupted us, bringing us the cat and putting a little bow on him, and then making him walk on the key-board of the piano.

“At half-past one we went to the dining-room. Dinner was kilometres long; and the conversation turned on Rome and Paris. Don Calixto drank more and more, I, too; and at the end of the meal there was a bit of toasting, from which my political intentions were made manifest.

“The elder daughter, whose name is Adela, asked me if I liked music. I told her yes, almost closing my eyes, as if deliriously, and we went into the drawing-room. Without paying attention, I listened, during the horrors of digestion, to a number of sonatas, now and then saying: ‘Magnificent! How wonderful that is!’

“The father was enchanted, the mother enchanted, the sister likewise; the little girl was the one who stared at me with questioning black eyes. She must have been thinking: ‘What species of bird is this?’ I believe the damned child realized that I was acting a comedy.

“About four the ladies and I went out into the garden. Don Calixto has the habit of taking an afternoon nap, and he left us. I succeeded in bringing myself to, in the open air. Don Calixto’s wife showed me over an abandoned part of the house, in which there is an old kitchen as big as a cathedral, with a stone chimney like a high altar, with the arms of the Dukes of Castro. We chatted, I was very pleasant to the mother, courteous to the daughters, and coldly indifferent with the little niece. I was bored, after having exhausted all subjects of conversation, when Don Calixto reappeared and carried me off to his office.

“The conference was important; he explained the situation of the Conservative forces of the district to me. These forces are represented, principally, by three men: Don Calixto, a SeÑor Don PlatÓn, and a friar. Don Calixto represents the modern Conservative tendency and is, let us say, the CÁnovas of the district; with him are the rich members of the Casino, the superior judge, the doctors, the great proprietors, etc. Don PlatÓn PeribÁÑez, a silversmith in the Calle Mayor, represents the middle-class Conservatives; his people are less showy, but more in earnest and better disciplined; this Platonian or Platonic party is made up of chandlers, silversmiths, small merchants, and the poor priests. The friar, who represents the third Conservative nucleus, is Father Martin Lafuerza. Father Martin is prior of the Franciscan monastery, which was established here after the Order was expelled from Filinas.

“Father Martin is an Ultramontanist up to the eyes. He directs priests, friars, nuns, sisters, and is the absolute master of a town nearby called Cidones, where the women are very pious.

“Despite their piety, the reputation of those ladies cannot be very good, because there is a proverb, certainly not very gallant: ‘Don’t get either a wife or a mule at Cidones; neither a wife nor a mule nor a pig at GriÑÓn.’

“Opposed to these three Conservative nuclei are the friends of the present Deputy, who amount to no more than the official element, which is always on the ruling side, and a small guerilla band that meets in the Workingmen’s Casino, and is composed principally of a Republican bookseller, an apothecary who invents explosives, also Republican, an anarchist doctor, a free-thinking weaver, and an innkeeper whom they call Furibis, who is also a smuggler and a man with hair on his chest.”

DON PLATÓN PERIBÁÑEZ

“After having given me these data, Don Calixto told me that by counting on SeÑor PeribÁÑez, the election was almost sure; and since the quicker things go the better, he proposed that we should go to see him, and I immediately agreed.

“Don PlatÓn PeribÁÑez has a silver-shop fitted up in the old style; a small show-window, full of rattles, Moorish anklets, necklaces, little crosses, et cetera; a narrow, dark shop, then a long passage, and at the rear, a workroom with a window on a court.

“As his assistant in the silver-shop, Don PlatÓn has a boy who is a nonsuch. I believe that if you took him to London and exhibited him, saying beforehand: ‘Bear in mind, gentlemen, that this is not a monkey or an anthropoid, but a man,’ you would rake in a mad amount of pounds sterling.

“We went into Don PlatÓn’s little shop, we asked the young macaco for him, and we passed on into the workshop.

“SeÑor PeribÁÑez is a man of medium stature, dressed in black, with a trimmed white beard, grey eyes, and modest manners. He speaks coldly, thinks closely of what he is saying; he has a monotonous, slow voice, and nothing escapes him.

“Don Calixto presented me to him; the silversmith gave me his hand as if with a certain repugnance, and the boss explained who I was and what I was after.

“Don PlatÓn said that he could not reply categorically without consulting with his friends and with Father MartÍn. The Father has other candidates; one the Duke of Castro himself; and the other a rich farmer of the town.

“The Duke of Castro presents no other drawback than that he has been arrested in Paris for an insignificant swindle he has committed; but it seems that a rich Cuban wants to get him out of his difficulties on condition that he will marry his daughter.

“If he comes out of jail and gets married, then they will nominate him as Deputy from here.

“I said to Don PlatÓn, in case the worthy Duke does not come out of jail, would he have difficulties over my being his candidate. He replied that I am very young, and after many circumlocutions he said flatly that he doesn’t know if I would be accepted or not as a candidate by his followers; but in case I were, the conditions precedent would be: first, that I would not interfere in any way in the affairs of the district, which would be ventilated in the town, as previously; secondly, that I should bear the costs of the election, which would amount approximately to some ten thousand pesetas.

“Don Calixto looked at me questioningly, and I smiled in a way to make it understood that I agreed, and after extracting a promise from Don PlatÓn that he will give us a definite answer this week, we took leave of him and went to the Casino.

“There I was introduced to the judge, an Andalusian who has a spotless reputation for veniality, and to the mayor, who is a rich farmer; and the most important persons of the town being thus gathered at one table, we chatted about politics, women, and gambling.

“I told them a number of tales; I told them that I once lost ten thousand dollars at Monte Carlo, playing with two Russian princes and a Yankee millionairess; I talked to them about the mysteries and crimes of gambling houses and of those great centres of pleasure, and I left them speechless. At half-past nine, with a terrible headache, I came back here. I think I have not lost a day, eh?”

“No! The devil! What speed!” exclaimed Alzugaray.

“But you are not eating any supper. Don’t you intend to take anything?”

“No. I am going to see if I can sleep. Listen, day after tomorrow we are both invited to dine at Don Calixto’s.”

“Me, too?”

“Yes; I told them that you are a rich tourist, and they want to know you.”

“And what am I to do there?”

“You can study these people, as an entomologist studies insects. Listen, it wouldn’t do any harm if you took a walk to that town near here, named Cidones, to see if you can find out what sort of bird this Father Martin is.”

“All right.”

“And if you don’t mind, go into that Republican bookseller’s shop, under any pretext, and talk to him.”

“I will do so.”

“Then, till tomorrow!”

“You are going now?”

“Yes.”

“Goodnight, then.”

CÆsar left his room and marched off to sleep.