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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15610-8.txt b/15610-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ba44da --- /dev/null +++ b/15610-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2096 @@ +Project Gutenberg's First Love (Little Blue Book #1195), by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: First Love (Little Blue Book #1195) + And Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + First Love + And Other Fascinating Stories + of Spanish Life + + + Emilia Pardo-Bazan + and Others + + + LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1195 + Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius + + + HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY + GIRARD, KANSAS + + + + +CONTENTS + + + First Love + _Emilia Pardo-Bazan._ + + An Andalusian Duel + _Serafin Estebanez Calderon._ + + Mariquita the Bald + _Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch._ + + The Love of Clotilde + _Armando Palacio Valdés._ + + Captain Veneno's Proposal of Marriage + _Pedro Antonio de Alarcón._ + + + + +FIRST LOVE + +Emilia Pardo-Bazan + + +How old was I then? Eleven or twelve years? More probably thirteen, +for before then is too early to be seriously in love; but I won't +venture to be certain, considering that in Southern countries the +heart matures early, if that organ is to blame for such perturbations. + +If I do not remember well _when_, I can at least say exactly _how_ my +first love revealed itself. I was very fond--as soon as my aunt had +gone to church to perform her evening devotions--of slipping into her +bedroom and rummaging her chest of drawers, which she kept in +admirable order. Those drawers were to me a museum; in them I always +came across something rare or antique, which exhaled an archaic and +mysterious scent, the aroma of the sandalwood fans which perfumed her +white linen. Pin-cushions of satin now faded; knitted mittens, +carefully wrapped in tissue paper; prints of saints; sewing materials; +a reticule of blue velvet embroidered with bugles, an amber and silver +rosary would appear from the corners: I used to ponder over them, and +return them to their place. But one day--I remember as well as if it +were today--in the corner of the top drawer, and lying on some collars +of old lace, I saw something gold glittering--I put in my hand, +unwittingly crumpled the lace, and drew out a portrait, an ivory +miniature, about three inches long, in a frame of gold. + +I was struck at first sight. A sunbeam streamed through the window and +fell upon the alluring form, which seemed to wish to step out of its +dark background and come towards me. It was the most lovely creature, +such as I had never seen except in the dreams of my adolescence. The +lady of the portrait must have been some twenty odd years; she was no +simple maiden, no half-opened rosebud, but a woman in the full +resplendency of her beauty. Her face was oval, but not too long, her +lips full, half-open and smiling, her eyes cast a languishing +side-glance, and she had a dimple on her chin as if formed by the tip +of Cupid's playful finger. Her head-dress was strange but elegant; a +compact group of curls plastered conewise one over the other covered +her temples, and a basket of braided hair rose on the top of her head. +This old-fashioned head-dress, which was trussed up from the nape of +her neck, disclosed all the softness of her fresh young throat, on +which the dimple of her chin was reduplicated more vaguely and +delicately. + +As for the dress--I do not venture to consider whether our +grandmothers were less modest than our wives are, or if the confessors +of past times were more indulgent than those of the present; I am +inclined to think the latter, for seventy years ago women prided +themselves upon being Christianlike and devout, and would not have +disobeyed the director of their conscience in so grave and important a +matter. What is undeniable is, that if in the present day any lady +were to present herself in the garb of the lady of the portrait, there +would be a scandal; for from her waist (which began at her armpits) +upwards, she was only veiled by light folds of diaphanous gauze, which +marked out, rather than covered, two mountains of snow, between which +meandered a thread of pearls. With further lack of modesty she +stretched out two rounded arms worthy of Juno, ending in finely molded +hands--when I say _hands_ I am not exact, for, strictly speaking, only +one hand could be seen, and that held a richly embroidered +handkerchief. + +Even today I am astonished at the startling effect which the +contemplation of that miniature produced upon me, and how I remained +in ecstasy, scarcely breathing, devouring the portrait with my eyes. I +had already seen here and there prints representing beautiful women. +It often happened that in the illustrated papers, in the mythological +engravings of our dining-room, or in a shop-window, that a beautiful +face, or a harmonious and graceful figure attracted my precociously +artistic gaze. But the miniature encountered in my aunt's drawer, +apart from its great beauty, appeared to me as if animated by a subtle +and vital breath; you could see it was not the caprice of a painter, +but the image of a real and actual person of flesh and blood. The warm +and rich tone of the tints made you surmise that the blood was tepid +beneath that mother-of-pearl skin. The lips were slightly parted to +disclose the enameled teeth; and to complete the illusion there ran +round the frame a border of natural hair, chestnut in color, wavy and +silky, which had grown on the temples of the original. + +As I have said, it was more than a copy, it was the reflection of a +living person from whom I was only separated by a wall of glass.--I +seized it, breathed upon it, and it seemed to me that the warmth of +the mysterious deity communicated itself to my lips and circulated +through my veins. At this moment I heard footsteps in the corridor. It +was my aunt returning from her prayers. I heard her asthmatic cough, +and the dragging of her gouty feet. I had only just time to put the +miniature into the drawer, shut it, and approach the window, adopting +an innocent and indifferent attitude. + +My aunt entered noisily, for the cold of the church had exasperated +her catarrh, now chronic. Upon seeing me, her wrinkled eyes +brightened, and giving me a friendly tap with her withered hand, she +asked me if I had been turning over her drawers as usual. + +Then, with a chuckle: + +"Wait a bit, wait a bit," she added, "I have something for you, +something you will like." + +And she pulled out of her vast pocket a paper bag, and out of the bag +three or four gum lozenges, sticking together in a cake, which gave me +a feeling of nausea. + +My aunt's appearance did not invite one to open one's mouth and devour +these sweets: the course of years, her loss of teeth, her eyes dimmed +to an unusual degree, the sprouting of a mustache or bristles on her +sunken-in mouth, which was three inches wide, dull gray locks +fluttering above her sallow temples, a neck flaccid and livid as the +crest of the turkey when in a good temper.--In short, I did not take +the lozenges. Ugh! A feeling of indignation, a manly protest rose in +me, and I said forcibly: + +"I do not want it, I don't want it." + +"You don't want it? What a wonder! You who are greedier than a cat!" + +"I am not a little boy," I exclaimed, drawing myself up, and standing +on tiptoes; "I don't care for sweets." + +My aunt looked at me half good-humoredly and half ironically, and at +last, giving way to the feeling of amusement I caused her, burst out +laughing, by which she disfigured herself, and exposed the horrible +anatomy of her jaws. She laughed so heartily that her chin and nose +met, hiding her lips, and emphasizing two wrinkles, or rather two deep +furrows, and more than a dozen lines on her cheeks and eyelids; at the +same time her head and body shook with the laughter, until at last her +cough began to interrupt the bursts, and between laughing and coughing +the old lady involuntarily spluttered all over my face. Humiliated, +and full of disgust, I escaped rapidly thence to my mother's room, +where I washed myself with soap and water, and began to muse on the +lady of the portrait. + +And from that day and hour I could not keep my thoughts from her. As +soon as my aunt went out, to slip into her room, open the drawer, +bring out the miniature, and lose myself in contemplation, was the +work of a minute. By dint of looking at it, I fancied that her +languishing eyes, through the voluptuous veiling, of her eyelashes, +were fixed in mine, and that her white bosom heaved. I became ashamed +to kiss her, imagining she would be annoyed at my audacity, and only +pressed her to my heart or held her against my cheek. All my actions +and thoughts referred to the lady; I behaved towards her with the most +extraordinary refinement and super-delicacy. Before entering my aunt's +room and opening the longed-for drawer, I washed, combed my hair, and +tidied myself, as I have seen since is usually done before repairing +to a love appointment. + +I often happened to meet in the street other boys of my age, very +proud of their slip of a sweetheart, who would exultingly show me +love-letters, photographs, and flowers, and who asked me if I hadn't a +sweetheart with whom to correspond. A feeling of inexplicable +bashfulness tied my tongue, and I only replied with an enigmatic and +haughty smile. And when they questioned me as to what I thought of the +beauty of their little maidens, I would shrug my shoulders and +disdainfully call them _ugly mugs_. + +One Sunday I went to play in the house of some little girl-cousins, +really very pretty, the eldest of whom was not yet fifteen. We were +amusing ourselves looking into a stereoscope, when suddenly one of the +little girls, the youngest, who counted twelve summers at most, +secretly seized my hand, and in some confusion and blushing as red as +a brazier, whispered in my ear: + +"Take this." + +At the same time I felt in the palm of my hand something soft and +fresh, and saw that it was a rosebud with its green foliage. The +little girl ran away smiling and casting a side-glance at me; but I, +with a Puritanism worthy of Joseph, cried out in my turn: + +"Take this!" + +And I threw the rosebud at her nose, a rebuff which made her tearful +and pettish with me the whole afternoon, and for which she has not +pardoned me even now, though she is married and has three children. + +The two or three hours which my aunt spent morning and evening +together at church being too short for my admiration of the entrancing +portrait, I resolved at last to keep the miniature in my pocket, and +went about all day hiding myself from people just as if I had +committed some crime. I fancied that the portrait from the depth of +its prison of cloth could see all my actions, and I arrived at such a +ridiculous extremity, that if I wanted to scratch myself, pull up my +sock, or do anything else not in keeping with the idealism of my +chaste love, I first drew out the miniature, put it in a safe place, +and then considered myself free to do whatever I wanted. In fact, +since I had accomplished the theft, there was no limit to my vagaries. +At night I hid it under the pillow, and slept in an attitude of +defense; the portrait remained near the wall, I outside, and I awoke +a thousand times, fearing somebody would come to bereave me of my +treasure. At last I drew it from beneath the pillow and slipped it +between my nightshirt and left breast, on which the following day +could be seen the imprint of the chasing of the frame. + +The contact of the dear miniature gave me delicious dreams. The lady +of the portrait, not in effigy, but in her natural size and +proportions, alive, graceful, affable, beautiful, would come towards +me to conduct me to her palace by a rapid and flying train. With sweet +authority she would make me sit on a stool at her feet, and would pass +her beautifully molded hand over my head, caressing my brow, my eyes, +and loose curls. I read to her out of a big missal, or played the +lute, and she deigned to smile, thanking me for the pleasure which my +reading and songs gave her. At last romantic reminiscences overflowed +in my brain, and sometimes I was a page, and sometimes a troubadour. + +With all these fanciful ideas, the fact is that I began to grow thin +quite perceptibly, which was observed with great disquietude in my +parents and my aunt. + +"In this dangerous and critical age of development, everything is +alarming," said my father, who used to read books of medicine, and +anxiously studied my dark eyelids, my dull eyes, my contracted and +pale lips, and above all, the complete lack of appetite which had +taken possession of me. + +"Play, boy; eat, boy," he would say to me, and I replied to him, +dejectedly: + +"I don't feel inclined." + +They began to talk of distractions, offered to take me to the theater; +stopped my studies, and gave me foaming new milk to drink. Afterwards +they poured cold water over my head and back to fortify my nerves; and +I noticed that my father at table or in the morning when I went to his +bedroom to bid him good morning, would gaze at me fixedly for some +little time, and would sometimes pass his hand down my spine, feeling +the vertebrae. I hypocritically lowered my eyes, resolved to die +rather than confess my crime. As soon as I was free from the +affectionate solicitude of my family, I found myself alone with my +lady of the portrait. At last, to get nearer to her, I thought I would +do away with the cold crystal. I trembled upon putting this into +execution; but at last my love prevailed over the vague fear with +which such a profanation filled me, and with skillful cunning I +succeeded in pulling away the glass and exposing the ivory plate. As I +pressed my lips to the painting I could scent the slight fragrance of +the border of hair, I imagined to myself even more realistically that +it was a living person whom I was grasping with my trembling hands. A +feeling of faintness overpowered me, and I fell unconscious on the +sofa, tightly holding the miniature. + +When I came to my senses I saw my father, my mother, and my aunt, all +bending anxiously over me; I read their terror and alarm in their +faces; my father was feeling my pulse, shaking his head, and +murmuring: + +"His pulse is nothing but a flutter, you can scarcely feel it." + +My aunt, with her claw-like fingers, was trying to take the portrait +from me, and I was mechanically hiding it and grasping it more firmly. + +"But, my dear boy--let go, you are spoiling it!" she exclaimed. "Don't +you see you are smudging it? I am not scolding you, my dear.--I will +show it to you as often as you like, but don't destroy it; let go, you +are injuring it." + +"Let him have it," begged my mother, "the boy is not well." + +"Of all things to ask!" replied the old maid. "Let him have it! And +who will paint another like this--or make me as I was then? Today +nobody paints miniatures--it is a thing of the past, and I also am a +thing of the past, and I am not what is represented there!" + +My eyes dilated with horror; my fingers released their hold on the +picture. I don't know how I was able to articulate: + +"You--the portrait--is you?" + +"Don't you think I am as pretty now, boy? Bah! one is better looking +at twenty-three than at--than at--I don't know what, for I have +forgotten how old I am!" + +My head drooped and I almost fainted again; anyway, my father lifted +me in his arms on to the bed, and made me swallow some tablespoonfuls +of port. + +I recovered very quickly, and never wished to enter my aunt's room +again. + + + + +AN ANDALUSIAN DUEL + +Serafin Estebanez Calderon + + +Through the little square of St. Anna, towards a certain tavern, where +the best wine is to be quaffed in Seville, there walked in measured +steps two men whose demeanor clearly manifested the soil which gave +them birth. He who walked in the middle of the street, taller than the +other by about a finger's length, sported with affected carelessness +the wide, slouched hat of Ecija, with tassels of glass beads and a +ribbon as black as his sins. He wore his cloak gathered under his left +arm; the right, emerging from a turquoise lining, exposed the merino +lambskin with silver clasps. The herdsman's boots--white, with Turkish +buttons,--the breeches gleaming red from below the cloak and covering +the knee, and, above all, his strong and robust appearance, dark curly +hair, and eye like a red-hot coal, proclaimed at a distance that all +this combination belonged to one of those men who put an end to horses +between their knees and tire out the bull with their lance. + +He walked on, arguing with his companion, who was rather spare than +prodigal in his person, but marvelously lithe and supple. The latter +was shod with low shoes, garters united the stockings to the +light-blue breeches, the waistcoat was cane-colored, his sash light +green, and jaunty shoulder-knots, lappets, and rows of buttons +ornamented the carmelite jacket. The open cloak, the hat drawn over +his ear, his short, clean steps, and the manifestations in all his +limbs and movements of agility and elasticity beyond trial plainly +showed that in the arena, carmine cloth in hand, he would mock at the +most frenzied of Jarama bulls, or the best horned beasts from Utrera. + +I--who adore and die for such people, though the compliment be not +returned--went slowly in the wake of their worships, and, unable to +restrain myself, entered with them the same tavern, or rather +eating-house, since there they serve certain provocatives as well as +wine, and I, as my readers perceive, love to call things by their +right name. I entered and sat down at once, and in such a manner as +not to interrupt Oliver and Roland, and that they might not notice me, +when I saw that, as if believing themselves alone, they threw their +arms with an amicable gesture round each others' neck, and thus began +their discourse: + +"Pulpete," said the taller, "now that we are going to meet each +other, knife in hand--you here, I there,--_one, two_,--_on your +guard_,--_triz, traz_,--_have that_,--_take this and call it what +you like_--let us first drain a tankard to the music and measure +of some songs." + +"Señor Balbeja," replied Pulpete, drawing his face aside and spitting +with the greatest neatness and pulchritude towards his shoe, "I am not +the kind of man either for La Gorja or other similar earthly matters, +or because a steel tongue is sheathed in my body, or my weasand slit, +or for any other such trifle, to be provoked or vexed with such a +friend as Balbeja. Let the wine be brought, and then, we will sing; +and afterwards blood--blood to the hilt." + +The order was given, they clinked glasses, and, looking one at the +other, sang a Sevillian song. + +This done, they threw off their cloaks with an easy grace, and +unsheathed their knives with which to prick one another, the one +Flemish with a white haft, the other from Guadix, with a guard to the +hilt, both blades dazzling in their brightness, and sharpened and +ground enough for operating upon cataracts, much less ripping up +bellies and bowels. The two had already cleft the air several times +with the said lancets, their cloak wound round their left arm--first +drawing closer, then back, now more boldly and in bounds--when Pulpete +hoisted the flag for parley, and said: + +"Balbeja, my friend, I only beg you to do me the favor not to fan my +face with _Juilon_ your knife, since a slash might use it so ill that +my mother who bore me would not know me, and I should not like to be +considered ugly; neither is it right to mar and destroy what God made +in His likeness." + +"Agreed," replied Balbeja; "I will aim lower." + +"Except--except my stomach also, for I was ever a friend to +cleanliness, and I should not like to see myself fouled in a bad way, +if your knife and arm played havoc with my liver and intestines." + +"I will strike higher; but let us go on." + +"Take care of my chest, it was always weak." + +"Then just tell me, friend, _where_ am I to sound or tap you?" + +"My dear Balbeja, there's always plenty of time and space to hack at a +man; I have here on my left arm a wen, of which you can make meat as +much as you like." + +"Here goes for it," said Balbeja, and he hurled himself like an arrow; +the other warded off the thrust with his cloak, and both, like skilful +penmen, began again tracing S's and signatures in the air with dashes +and flourishes without, however, raising a particle of skin. + +I do not know what would have been the end of this onslaught, since my +venerable, dry, and shriveled person was not suitable for forming a +point of exclamation between two combatants; and the tavern-keeper +troubled so little about what was happening that he drowned the +stamping of their feet and clatter of the tumbling stools and utensils +by scraping street music on a guitar as loud as he could. Otherwise he +was as calm as if he were entertaining two angels instead of two +devils incarnate. + +I do not know, I repeat, how this scene would have ended, when there +crossed the threshold a parsonage who came to take a part in the +development of the drama. There entered, I say, a woman of twenty to +twenty-two years of age, diminutive in body, superlative in audacity +and grace. Neat and clean hose and shoes, short, black flounced +petticoat, a linked girdle, head-dress or mantilla of fringed taffeta +caught together at the nape of her neck, and a corner of it over her +shoulder, she passed before my eyes with swaying hips, arms akimbo, +and moving her head to and fro as she looked about her on all sides. + +Upon seeing her the tavern-keeper dropped his instrument, and I was +overtaken by perturbation such as I had not experienced for thirty +years (I am, after all, only flesh and blood); but, without halting +for such lay-figures, she advanced to the field of battle. + +There was a lively to-do here; Don Pulpete and Don Balbeja when they +saw Doña Gorja appear, first cause of the disturbance and future prize +for the victor, increased their feints, flourishes, curvets, onsets, +crouching, and bounds--all, however, without touching a hair. Our +Helen witnessed in silence for a long time this scene in history with +that feminine pleasure which the daughters of Eve enjoy at such +critical moments. But gradually her pretty brow clouded over, until, +drawing from her delicate ear, not a flower or earring, but the stump +of a cigar, she hurled it amidst the jousters. Not even Charles V's +cane in the last duel in Spain produced such favorable effects. Both +came forward immediately with formal respect, and each, by reason of +the discomposure of his person and clothes, presumed to urge a title +by which to recommend himself to the fair with the flounces. She, as +though pensive, was going over the passage of arms in her mind, and +then, with firm and confident resolution, spoke thus: + +"And is this affair for me?" + +"Who else should it be for? since I--since nobody--" they replied in +the same breath. + +"Listen, gentlemen," said she. "For females such as I and my parts, +of my charms and descent--daughter of La Gatusa, niece of La Mêndez, +and granddaughter of La Astrosa--know that there are neither pacts nor +compacts, nor any such futile things, nor are any of them worth a +farthing. And when men challenge each other, let the knife do its work +and the red blood flow, so as not to have my mother's daughter present +without giving her the pleasure of snapping her fingers in the face of +the other. If you pretend you are fighting for me, it's a lie; you are +wholly mistaken, and that not by halves. I love neither of you. +Mingalarios of Zafra is to my taste, and he and I look upon you with +scorn and contempt. Good-by, my braves; and, if you like, call my man +to account." + +She spoke, spat, smoothed the saliva with the point of her shoe, +looking Pulpete and Balbeja full in the face, and went out with the +same expressive movements with which she entered. + +The two unvarnished braggarts followed the valorous Doña Gorja with +their eyes; and then with a despicable gesture drew their knives +across their sleeve as though wiping off the blood there might have +been, sheathed them at one and the same time, and said together: + +"Through woman the world was lost, through a woman Spain was lost; but +it has never been known, nor do ballads relate, nor the blind beggars +sing, nor is it heard in the square or markets, that two valiant men +killed each, other for another lover." + +"Give me that fist, Don Pulpete." + +"Your hand, Don Balbeja." + +They spoke and strode out into the street, the best friends in the +world, leaving me all amazed at such whimsicality. + + + + +MARIQUITA THE BALD + +Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch + + +It is as sorry a matter to use words of whose meaning one is ignorant +as it is a blemish for a man of sense to speak of what he knows +nothing about. I say this to those of you who may have the present +story in your hands, however often you may have happened to have heard +_Mariquita the Bald_ mentioned, and I swear by my doublet that you +shall soon know who Mariquita the Bald was, as well as I know who ate +the Christmas turkey, setting aside the surmise that it certainly must +have been a mouth. + +I desire, therefore, to enlighten your ignorance of this subject, and +beg to inform you that the said noted Maria (Mariquita is a diminutive +of Maria) was born in the District of Segovia, and in the town of San +Garcia, the which town is famed for the beauty of the maidens reared +within its walls, who for the most part have such gentle and lovely +faces that may I behold such around me at the hour of my death. +Maria's father was an honest farmer, by name Juan Lanas, a Christian +old man and much beloved, who had inherited no mean estate from his +forefathers, though with but little wit in his crown,--a lack which +was the cause of much calamity to both the father and the daughter, +for in the times to which we have attained, God forgive me if it is +not necessary to have more of the knave than of the fool in one's +composition. + +Now it came to pass that Juan Lanas, for the castigation of his sins, +must needs commit himself to a lawsuit with one of his neighbors about +a vine stock which was worth about fifty _maravedis_; and Juan was in +the right, and the judges gave the verdict in his favor, so that he +won his case, excepting that the suit lasted no less than ten years +and the costs amounted to nothing less than fifty thousand +_maravedis_, not to speak of a disease of the eyes which, after all +was over, left him blind. When he found himself with diminished +property and without his eyesight, in sorrow and disgust he turned +into money such part of his patrimony as sufficed to rid him of the +hungry herd of scriveners and lawyers, and took his way to Toledo with +his daughter, who was already entering upon her sixteenth year, and +had matured into one of the most beautiful, graceful, and lovable +damsels to be found throughout all Castile and the kingdoms beyond. + +For she was white as the lily and red like the rose, straight and tall +of stature, and slender in the waist, with fair, shapely hips; and +again her foot and hand were plump and small to a marvel, and she +possessed a head of hair which reached to her knees. For I knew the +widow Sarmiento who was their housekeeper, and she told me how she +could scarcely clasp Mariquita's hair with both hands, and that she +could not comb the hair unless Maria stood up and the housekeeper +mounted on a footstool, for if Maria sat down the long tresses swept +the ground, and therefore became all entangled. + +And do not imagine, her beauty and grace being such, that she sinned +greatly in pride and levity, as is the wont of girls in this age. She +was as humble as a cloistered lay-sister, and as silent as if she were +not a woman, and patient as the sucking lamb, and industrious as the +ant, clean as the ermine, and pure as a saint of those times in which, +by the grace of the Most High, saintly women were born into the world. +But I must confide to you in friendship that our Mariquita was not a +little vain about her hair, and loved to display it, and for this +reason, now in the streets, now when on a visit, now when at mass, it +is said she used to subtilely loosen her mantilla so that her tresses +streamed down her back, the while feigning forgetfulness and +carelessness. She never wore a hood, for she said it annoyed her and +choked her; and every time that her father reproached her for some +deed deserving of punishment and threatened to cut off her hair, I +warrant you she suffered three times more than after a lash from the +whip, and would then be good for three weeks successively; so much so +that Juan Lanas, perceiving her amendment, would laugh under his +cloak, and when saying his say to his gossips would tell them that his +daughter, like the other saint of Sicily, would reach heaven by her +hair. + +Having read so far, you must now know that Juan Lanas, the blind man, +with the change of district and dwelling did not change his judgment +and if he was crack-brained at San Garcia, he remained crack-brained +at Toledo, consuming in this resort his money upon worthless drugs and +quacks which did not cure his blindness and impoverished him more and +more every day, so that if his daughter had not been so dexterous with +her fingers in making and broidering garments of linen, wool, and +silk, I promise you that this miserable Juan would have had to go for +more than four Sundays without a clean shirt to put on or a mouthful +to eat, unless he had begged it from door to door. + +The years passed by to find Maria every day more beautiful, and her +father every day more blind and more desirous to see, until his +affliction and trouble took such forcible possession of his breast and +mind, that Maria saw as clear as daylight that if her father did not +recover his sight, he would die of grief. Maria thereupon straightway +took her father and led him to the house of an Arabian physician of +great learning who dwelt at Toledo, and told the Moor to see if there +were any cure for the old man's sight. The Arabian examined and +touched Juan, and made this and that experiment with him, and +everything prospered, in that the physician swore great oaths by the +heel-bone of Mohammed that there was a complete certainty of curing +Juan and making him to see his daughter again, if only he, the +physician, were paid for the cure with five hundred _maravedis_ all in +gold. A sad termination for such a welcome beginning, for the two +unhappy creatures, Juan and Maria, had neither _maravedi_ nor +_cuarto_ in the money box! So they went thence all downcast, and Maria +never ceased praying to his Holiness Saint John and his Holiness Saint +James (the patron saint of Spain) to repair to their assistance in +this sad predicament. + +"In what way," conjectured she inwardly, "in what way can I raise five +hundred _maravedis_ to be quits with the Moor who will give back his +sight to my poor old father? All! I have it. I am a pretty maid, and +suitors innumerable, commoners and nobles, pay their addresses and +compliments to me. But all are trifling youths who only care for +love-making and who seek light o' loves rather than spouses according +to the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember, notwithstanding, that +opposite our house lives the sword-cutler, Master Palomo, who is +always looking at me and never speaks to me, and the Virgin assist me, +he appears a man of very good condition for a husband; but what +maiden, unless she were cross-eyed, or hunch-backed, could like a man +with such a flat nose, with that skin the color of a ripe date, with +those eyes like a dead calf's, and with those huge hands, which are +more like the paws of a wild beast that the belongings of a person who +with them should softly caress the woman whom Destiny bestows upon him +for a companion? 'Tis said that he is no drunkard, nor cudgeler, nor +dallier with women, nor a liar, and that he is besides possessed of +much property and very rich. Pity 'tis that one who is so ugly and +stiff-necked should unite such parts." + +Thus turning the matter over and over in her mind, Maria together +with Juan reached their home, where was awaiting them an esquire in a +long mourning robe, who told Maria that the aunt of the mayor of the +city had died in an honest estate and in the flower of her age, for +she had not yet completed her seventy years, and that the obsequies of +this sexagenarian damsel were to be performed the following day, on +which occasion her coffin would be carried to the church by maidens, +and he was come to ask Maria if she would please to be one of the +bearers of the dead woman, for which she would receive a white robe, +and to eat, and ducat, and thanks into the bargain. + +Maria, since she was a well-brought-up maid, replied that if it seemed +well to her father, it would also seem well to her. + +Juan accepted, and Maria was rejoiced to be able to make a display of +her hair, for it is well known that the maidens who bear one another +to the grave walk with disheveled locks. And when on the morrow the +tiring-women of the mayoress arrayed Maria in a robe white as the +driven snow and fine as the skin of an onion; and when they girt her +slender waist with a sash of crimson silk, the ends of which hung down +to the broad hem of the skirt; and when they crowned her smooth and +white forehead with a wreath of white flowers, I warrant you that, +what with the robe and the sash and the wreath, and the beautiful +streaming hair and her lovely countenance and gracious mien, she +seemed no female formed of flesh and blood, but a superhuman creature +or blessed resident of those shining circles in which dwell the +celestial hierarchies. The mayor and the other mourners stepped forth +to see her, and all unceasingly praised God, who was pleased to +perform such miracles for the consolation and solace of those living +in this world. + +And there in a corner of the hall, motionless like a heap of broken +stones, stood one of the mutes with the hood of his long cloak +covering his head, so that nothing could be seen but his eyes, the +which he kept fixed on the fair damsel. The latter modestly lowered +her eyes to the ground with her head a little bent and her cheeks red +for bashfulness, although it pleased her no little to hear the praises +of her beauty. At this moment a screen was pushed aside, and there +began to appear a huge bulk of petticoats, which was nothing less than +the person of the mayoress, for she was with child and drawing near to +her time. And when she saw Maria, she started, opened her eyes a +hand's-breadth wide, bit her lips, and called hurriedly for her +husband. They stepped aside for a good while, and then hied them +thence, and when they returned the mutes and maidens had all gone. + +While they were burying the defunct lady I must tell you, curious +readers, that the mayor and mayoress had been married for many years +without having any children, and they longed for them like the +countryman for rain in the month of May, and at last her hour of bliss +came to the mayoress, to the great content of her husband. Now, it +was whispered that the said lady had always been somewhat capricious; +judge for yourselves what she would be now in the time of her +pregnancy! And as she was already on the way to fifty, she was more +than mediocrely bald and hairless, and on these very same days had +commissioned a woman barber, who lived in the odor of witchcraft, to +prepare for her some false hair, but it was not to be that of a dead +woman, for the mayoress said very sensibly that if the hair belonged +to a dead woman who rejoiced in supreme glory, or was suffering for +her sins in purgatory, it would be profanation to wear any pledge of +theirs, and if they were in hell, it was a terrible thing to wear on +one's person relics of one of the damned. And when the mayoress saw +the abundant locks of Maria, she coveted them for herself, and it was +for this reason that she called to the mayor to speak to her in +private and besought him eagerly to persuade Mario to allow herself to +be shorn upon the return from the burial. + +"I warn you," said the mayor, "that you are desirous of entering upon +a very knotty bargain, for the disheveled girl idolizes her hair in +such wise that she would sooner lose a finger than suffer one of her +tresses to be cut off." + +"I warn you," replied the mayoress, "that if on this very day the head +of this young girl is not shorn smooth beneath my hand as a melon, the +child to which I am about to give birth will have a head of hair on +its face, and if it happens to be a female, look you, a pretty +daughter is in store for you!" + +"But bethink yourself that Maria will ask, who knows, a good few +crowns for this shaving." + +"Bethink yourself that if not, your heir or heiress, begotten after +many years' marriage, will come amiss; and bear in mind, by the way, +that we are not so young as to hope to replace this by another." + +Upon this she turned her back to the mayor, and went to her apartment +crying out: "I want the hair, I must have the hair, and if I do not +get the hair, by my halidom I shall never become a mother." + +In the meantime the funeral had taken place without any novelty to +mention, excepting that if in the streets any loose fellow in the +crowd assayed to annoy the fair Maria, the hooded mute, of whom we +made mention before, quickly drew from beneath his cloak a strap, with +which he gave a lash to the insolent rogue without addressing one word +to him, and then walked straight on as if nothing had happened. When +all the mourners returned, the mayor seized hold of Maria's hand and +said to her: + +"And now, fair maid, let us withdraw for a little while into this +other apartment," and thus talking whilst in motion he brought her +into his wife's private tiring-room, and sat himself down in a chair +and bent his head and stroked his beard with the mien of one who is +studying what beginning to give his speech. Maria, a little foolish +and confused, remained standing in front of the mayor, and she also +humbly lowered before him her eyes, black as the sloe; and to occupy +herself with something, gently fingered the ends of the sash, which +girded her waist and hung down over her skirt, not knowing what to +expect from the grave mien and long silence of the mayor, who, raising +his eyes and looking up at Maria, when he beheld her in so modest a +posture, devised thence a motive with which to begin, saying: + +"Forsooth, Maria, so modest and sanctimonious is thy bearing, that it +is easy to see thou art preparing thyself to become a black-wimpled +nun. And if it be so, as I presume it to be, I now offer of my own +accord to dispose of thy entry into the cloisters without any dowry, +on the condition that thou dost give me something that thou hast on +thy head, and which then will not be necessary for thee." + +"Nay, beshrew me, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, "for I durst not think +that the Lord calls upon me to take that step, for then my poor father +would remain in the world without the staff of his old age." + +"Then, now, I desire to give thee some wise counsel, maid Maria. Thou +dost gain thy bread with great fatigue. Thou shouldst make use of thy +time as much as is possible. Now one of thy neighbors hath told me +that in the dressing of thy hair thou dost waste every day more than +an hour. It would be better far if thou didst spend this hour on thy +work rather than in the dressing and braiding which thou dost to thy +hair." + +"That is true, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, turning as red as a +carnation, "but, look you, it is not my fault if I have a wealth of +tresses, the combing and plaiting of which necessitate so long a time +every morning." + +"I tell thee it is thy fault," retorted the mayor, "for if thou didst +cut off this mane, thou wouldst save thyself all this combing and +plaiting, and thus wouldst have more time for work, and so gain more +money, and wouldst also give no occasion to people to call thee vain. +They even say that the devil will some day carry thee off by thy hair. +Nay, do not be distressed, for I already perceive the tears gathering +in thine eyes, for thou hast them indeed very ready at hand; I +admonish thee for thine own good without any self-interest. Cut thy +hair off, shear thyself, shave thyself, good Maria, and to allay the +bitterness of the shearing, I will give fifty _maravedis_, always on +condition that thou dost hand me over the hair." + +When Maria at first heard this offer of so reasonable a sum for this +her hair, it seemed to her a jest of the mayor's, and she smiled right +sweetly while she dried her tears, repeating: + +"You will give me fifty _maravedis_ if I shave myself?" + +Now it appeared to the mayor (who, it is said, was not gifted with all +the prudence of Ulysses) that the smile signified that the maid was +not satisfied with so small a price, and he added: + +"If thou wilt not be content with fifty _maravedis_, I will give thee +a hundred." + +Then Maria saw some hangings of the apartment moving in front of her, +and perceiving a bulky protuberance, she immediately divined that the +mayoress was hiding behind there, and that the protuberance was caused +by her portly form. Now she discovered the mayor's design, and that it +was probably a caprice of his spouse, and she made a vow not to suffer +herself to be shorn unless she acquired by these means the five +hundred _maravedis_ needful to pay the Arabian physician who would +give her father back his eyesight. + +Then the mayor raised his price from a hundred _maravedis_ to a +hundred and fifty, and afterwards to two hundred, and Maria continued +her sweet smiling, shaking of the head, and gestures, and every time +that the mayor bid higher and Maria feigned to be reluctant, she +almost hoped that the mayor would withdraw from his proposition, for +the great grief it caused her to despoil herself of that precious +ornament, notwithstanding that my means of it she might gain her +father's health. Finally the mayor, anxious to conclude the treaty, +for he saw the stirring of the curtains, and knew by them the anxiety +and state of mind of the listener, closed by saying: + +"Go to, hussy, I will give thee five hundred _maravedis_. See, once +and for all, if thou canst agree on these terms." + +"Be it so," replied Maria, sighing as if her soul would flee from her +flesh with these words--"be it so, so long that nobody doth know that +I remain bald." + +"I will give my word for it," said the mayoress, stepping from behind +the curtains with a pair of sharp shears in her hands and a wrapper +over her arm. + +When Maria saw the scissors she turned as yellow as wax, and when they +told her to sit down on the sacrificial chair, she felt herself grow +faint and had to ask for a drink of water; and when they tied the +wrapper round her throat it is related that she would have immediately +torn it asunder if her courage had not failed her. And when at the +first movement of the shears she felt the cold iron against her skull, +I tell you it seemed to her as if they were piercing her heart with a +bright dagger. It is possible that she did not keep her head still for +a moment while this tonsuring was taking place; she moved it in spite +of herself, now to one side, now to another, to flee from the clipping +scissors, of which the rude cuts and the creaking axis wounded her +ears. Her posture and movements, however, were of no avail to the poor +shorn maiden, and the pertinacious shearer, with the anxiety and +covetousness of a pregnant woman satisfying a caprice, seized the hair +well, or ill, by handfuls, and went on bravely clipping, and the locks +fell on to the white wrapper, slipping down thence till they reached +the ground. + +At last the business came to an end, and the mayoress, who was beside +herself with joy, caressingly passed the palm of her hand again and +again over the maid's bald head from the front to the back, saying: + +"By my mother's soul, I have shorn you so regularly and close to the +root that the most skilful barber could not have shorn you better. +Get up and braid the hair while my husband goes to get the money and I +your clothes, so that you can leave the house without anyone +perceiving it." + +The mayor and mayoress went out of the room, and Maria, as soon as she +found herself alone, went to look at herself in a mirror that hung +there; and when she saw herself bald she lost the patience she had had +until then, and groaned with rage and struck herself, and even tried +to wrench off her ears, which appeared to her now outrageously large, +although they were not so in reality. She stamped upon her hair and +cursed herself for having ever consented to lose it, without +remembering her father, and just as if she had no father at all. But +as it is a quality of human nature to accept what cannot be altered, +poor angry Maria calmed down little by little, and she picked up the +hair from the ground and bound it together and braided it into great +ropes, not without kissing it and lamenting over it many times. + +The mayor and the mayoress returned, he with the money and she with +the every-day clothes of Maria, who undressed and folded her white +robe in a kerchief, put on her old gown, hid herself with her shawl to +the eyes, and walked, moaning, to the house of the Moor, without +noticing that the man with the hood over his head was following behind +her, and that when she, in a moment of forgetfulness, lowered her +shawl through the habit she had of displaying her tresses, her bald +head could be plainly seen. The Moor received the five hundred +_maravedis_ with that good-will with which money is always received, +and told Maria to bring Juan Lanas to his house to stay there so long +as there was any risk in the cure. Maria went to fetch the old man, +and kept silence as to her shorn head so as not to grieve him, and +whilst Juan remained the physician's guest, Maria durst not leave her +home except after nightfall, and then well enveloped. This, however, +did not hinder her being followed by the muffled-up man. + +One evening the Moor told her in secret that the next morning he would +remove the bandages from Juan's eyes. Maria went to bed that night +with great rejoicing, but thought to herself that when her father saw +her (which would be with no little pleasure) he would be pleased three +or four times more if he could see her with the pretty head-dress +which she used to wear in her native town. Amidst such cavillation she +donned the next day her best petticoat and ribbons to his to the +Arabian's house; and while she was sitting down to shoe herself she of +a sudden felt something like a hood closing over her head, and, +turning round, she saw behind her the muffled-up man of before, who, +throwing aside his cloak, discovered himself to be the sword-cutler, +Master Palomo, who, without speaking, presented Maria with a little +Venetian mirror, in which she looked and saw herself with her own hair +and garb in such wise that she wondered for a good time if it were not +a dream that the mayoress had shorn her. + +The fact was that Master Palomo was a great crony of the old woman +barber, and had seen in her house Maria's tresses on the very same +afternoon of the morning in which he saw Maria was bald, and keeping +silence upon the matter, had wheedled the old woman into keeping +Maria's hair for him, and dressing for the mayoress some other hair of +the same hue which the crone had from a dead woman--a bargain by which +the crafty old dame acquired many a bright crown. And the story +relates that as soon as Maria regained her much lamented and +sighed-for hair by the hands of the gallant sword-cutler, the master +appeared to her much less ugly than before. I do not know if it tells +that from that moment she began to look on him with more favorable +eyes, but i' sooth it is a fact that upon his asking her to accept his +escort to the Moor's house, she gave her assent, and the two set out +hand in hand, the maiden holding her head up free from mufflers. As +they both entered the physician's apartment her father threw himself +into Maria's arms, crying: + +"Glory to God, I see thee now, my beloved daughter. How tall and +beautiful thou art grown! Verily, it is worth while to become blind +for five years to see one's daughter matured thus! Now that I see +daylight again, it is only right that I should no longer be a burden +to thee. I shall work for myself, for as for thee it is already time +for thee to marry." + +"For this very purpose am I come," broke in at this opportune moment +the silent sword-cutler; "I, as you will have already recognized by +my voice, am your neighbor, Master Palomo. I love Maria, and ask you +for her hand." + +"Lack-a-day, master, but your exterior is not very prepossessing. +Howbeit, if Maria doth accept you, I am content." + +"I," replied Maria, wholly abashed, and smoothing the false hair +(which then weighed upon her head and heart like a burden of five +hundred weight)--"I, so may God enlighten me, for I durst not venture +to reply." + +Palomo took her right hand without saying anything, and as he did so +Maria looked at the master's wrists, and observed the wristbands of +his shirt, neatly embroidered, and with some suspicion and beating of +her heart said to him: + +"If you wish to please me, good neighbor, tell me by what seamstress +is this work?" + +"It is the work," replied the master, jocularly, "the work of a pretty +maiden who for five years has toiled for my person, albeit she hath +not known it till now." + +"Now I perceive," said Maria, "how that all the women who have come to +give me linen to sew and embroider were sent by you, and that is why +they paid me more than is customary." + +The master did not reply, but he smiled and held out his arms to +Maria. Maria threw herself into them, embracing him very caressingly; +and Juan himself said to the two: + +"In good sooth, you are made one for the other." + +"By my troth, my beloved one," continued the sword-cutler after a +while, "if my countenance had only been more pleasing, I should not +have been silent towards you for so many long days, nor would I have +been content with, gazing at you from afar. I should have spoken to +you, you would have made me the confidant of your troubles, and I +would have given you the five hundred _maravedis_ for the cure of your +good father." + +And whispering softly into her ear, he added: "And then you would not +have passed that evil moment under the hands of the mayoress. But if +you fear that she may break the promise she made to you to keep +silence as to your cropped head, let us, if it please you, set out for +Seville, where nobody knows you, and thus--" + +"No more," exclaimed Maria, resolutely throwing on the ground the +hair, which Juan picked up all astonished. "Send this hair to the +mayoress, since it was for this and not for that of the dead woman +that she paid so dearly. For I, to cure myself of my vanity, now make +a vow, with your good permission, to go shorn all my life. Such +artificial adornments are little befitting to the wives of honest +burghers." + +"But rely upon it," replied the master-cutler, "that as soon as it is +known that you have no hair, the girls of the city, envious of your +beauty, will give you the nickname of _Mariquita the Bald_!" + +"They may do so," replied Maria, "and that they may see that I do not +care a fig for this or any other nickname, I swear to you that from +this day forth I will not suffer anybody to call me by another name +than _Mariquita the Bald_." + +This was the event that rendered so famous throughout all Castile the +beautiful daughter of good Juan Lanas, who in effect married Master +Palomo, and became one of the most honorable and prolific women of the +most illustrious city of Toledo. + + + + +THE LOVE OF CLOTILDE + +Armando Palacio Valdés + + +In the dressing-room of Clotilde, leading actress of one of the most +important theaters in the capital, there gathered every night about +half a dozen of her male friends. The reception lasted almost always +about as long as the performances; but it included a number of +parentheses. Whenever the actress, was obliged to change her costume +she would turn towards her visitors with a bewitching smile and +beseeching eyes: + +"Gentlemen, will you withdraw for one little moment?--not more than +one little moment." + +Thereupon they would all transfer themselves to the ante-room and +remain there patiently waiting. No, I am mistaken, not quite all, +because the youngest of them, a third year student in the School of +Medicine, would avail himself of the chance to take a turn in the +wings to stretch his legs and snatch a fugitive kiss or so. At all +events, the majority remained, either seated or pacing up and down, +until the moment when Clotilde would re-open her door and, putting out +her head, decked as queen or peasant girl, according to the part she +was playing, would call out: + +"Now you may come back, gentlemen. Have I been very long?" + +Don Jerónimo always lingered. He was the last to withdraw grumbling +and the first to return to the dressing-room. He was never able to +reconcile himself to that modest custom. And although he never allowed +himself to say so openly, yet in the depths of his secret thoughts he +regarded it as a lack of courtesy that he should be ejected from his +seat, merely because the silly child must change her dress,--he, who +for thirty years had passed his life behind the scenes and had been on +intimate terms with every actor and actress, ancient and modern! + +He was fifty-four years of age and had been attached to the Ministry +of Foreign Affairs ever since he was four-and-twenty. Each successive +government had regarded him as one of the indispensable wheels in the +machinery of colonial administration. Furthermore, he was a bachelor +and living at the mercy of his landlady. It was said that in his youth +he once wrote a play which won him nothing but hisses and free entry +for life behind the scenes of the theaters. Whether resigned or not to +the verdict of the public, he ceased to write plays and assumed +instead the nobler rôle of patron to unrecognized authors and artists +and to ruined managers. + +Any youth from the provinces who arrived in Madrid with a drama in his +pocket could take no surer road to seeing it produced than that which +led to the home of Don Jerónimo. One and all, he received them with +open arms, the good and the bad alike. There is no denying that, +since he was rather brusque in his ways, he never spared the young +authors who asked his advice and read him their productions, but +criticized vigorously, even to the verge of insult: "This whole +episode is sheer nonsense; spill your ink-well on it!" "Why, look +here, for the love of heaven! How do you suppose that a man who is on +the point of committing murder is going to stand there for sixteen +seconds, without drawing his breath?" "Lord, what tommyrot! Platonic +love for a woman of that class! You must have tumbled out of the nest +unfledged, my lad!" + +But anyone possessed of a little tact refused to take offense, but +went calmly on and ended by intrusting his manuscript to the hands of +Don Jerónimo. And he could rest assured that his drama would be +produced. The veteran of the greenrooms exercised a strong influence, +akin to intimidation, over managers and actors alike; when he was +displeased, he gave his tongue free rein; if a play had been hissed, +he would protest, boiling with rage, against the public verdict, and +would continue to support the author more stanchly than ever. If on +the contrary it scored a hit, he merely kept silent and smiled +ecstatically, but never sought out the successful author in order to +congratulate him. And if the latter should complain of his +indifference, his answer was: + +"Now that you have shown that you can use your wings, will you please, +my friend, will you please leave me free to succor some other poor +fellow?" + +His private life offered little of special interest. Every night, +upon leaving the theater, he betook himself to the _Café Habanero_, +where he habitually consumed a beefsteak, together with a small +measure of beer. And, according to a certain friend, who had watched +him repeatedly, he always managed his repast so artfully as to finish, +at one and the same time, the last mouthful of meat, the last fragment +of bread, and the last draught of beer. + +On this particular night the little gathering was unwontedly animated. +The actress's friends indulged more freely than usual in gossip and +laughter. Don Jerónimo, muffled closely in his cape (one of his +privileges), lounging at ease in the big corner chair, and with his +inevitable cigar between his teeth (another special privilege), was +giving utterance to rare and racy stories, which from time to time +caused his hearers to cast a glance in the direction of Clotilde and +brought a slightly heightened color to the latter's cheeks. + +Don Jerónimo himself took no notice of this; he had first known her as +such a mere child that he considered he had the right to dispense with +certain courtesies that are due to ladies,--assuming that in the whole +course of his life he had ever shown them to any woman, which is very +doubtful. He had met her first as a mere child and had opened the way +for her to the stage. At the time that he ran across her, she was +living wretchedly and trying to learn the art of making artificial +flowers. Today, thanks to her talent, she earned enough to keep her +mother and sisters in comfort. + +Clotilde's attraction lay in her charm of manner rather than her +beauty. Her complexion was olive, her eyes large and black, the best +of all her features; her mouth somewhat big, but with bright red lips +and admirably even teeth. Tonight she was costumed as a lady of the +time of Louis XV, with powdered hair, which was marvelously becoming +to her. She took almost no part in the conversation, but seemed +satisfied to be merely a listener, constantly turning her serene gaze +from one speaker to another, and often answering only with a smile +when they addressed her. + +All at once there came the voice of the call-boy: + +"Señorita Clotilde, if you please--" + +"Coming," she answered, rising. + +She crossed over to the mirror, gave a few final touches to her brows +and lashes with a pencil, adjusted with somewhat nervous fingers the +coils of her hair, the cross of brilliants which she wore at her +throat, and the folds of her dress. Her friends became for the moment +silent and abstractedly watched these last preparations. + +"Good-by for the present, gentlemen." And she left the dressing-room, +followed by her maid, carefully bearing her train, a magnificent train +of cream-colored satin. + +"She grows lovelier every day, Clotilde does," said the medical +student, allowing an imperceptible sigh to escape him. + +Don Jerónimo took an enormous pull at his cigar, and instantly became +enveloped in a cloud of smoke. For this reason no one observed the +smile of triumph with which he received the medical student's remark. + +"I agree with you that she grows prettier every day," said another of +the visitors. "But it seems to me that her disposition has been +undergoing a big change for some time back. You, my boy, have not +known her as long as we have. She used to be a fascinating talker, so +merry, so full of spirits! No one could ever remain out of temper in +her company. But now I find her grave and sad almost all the time." + +"It's a fact that I have wondered at the melancholy look in her eyes." + +Don Jerónimo took another enormous pull at his cigar. No one saw the +swift flare of anger that passed over his face. + +"Changes like that, my boy, have only one cause, and that is love." + +"Was she engaged?" + +"Precisely,--Don Jerónimo knows the story well." + +"Yes, and I am going to tell it to you," said the one referred to, +from the depths of his cloak. "Though you may believe me that it is no +pleasant task to relate such follies. But it concerns a girl whom we +all of us love, and whatever affects her ought to interest us. + +"Some three years ago a young man, faultlessly dressed and with the +manuscript of a play under his arm, called upon the director of this +theater. Now there is nothing in the world more impressive and +awe-inspiring than a well-dressed young man who carries the manuscript +of a play under his arm. The director did his best to dodge him, and +held him off with a number of adroit moves; but he was finally +cornered, all the same. In other words, the young man invited him to +breakfast one day, enticing him with the seductive prospect of several +dozen oysters, washed down with abundant Sauterne, and for dessert he +shot off his play at close range. + +"As it turned out, the play was no good. Pepe did what you know one +does in such cases: he expressed deep admiration for the +versification, he said 'bravo!' over certain obscurely phrased +thoughts, and finally he recommended a few changes in the second act, +after which the work would be unexceptionable. + +"The unwary poet returned home greatly pleased, and set to work +zealously upon the revision. At the end of a fortnight he returned for +another interview with Pepe; this time the latter found the first act +somewhat slow, and advised him at any cost to put more action into it +and make it somewhat shorter. It took the poet a month to rewrite the +first act. When he once more presented himself, the director, while +expressing great admiration for the excellence of the verse and for +some of the ideas, manifested some doubt as to whether the play was +_actable_. That it was _literary_, he had none whatever; on the +contrary, it seemed to him that from this point of view it compared +favorably with the best of Ayala's plays,--but actable, really +actable, ah! that was another matter!" + +"What is the difference, Don Jerónimo? I don't understand." + +"Then I will explain, my boy. We, who are behind the scenes, mean by +_actable_ a good play, and by _literary_ a bad one." + +"I see!" + +"After expressing these doubts, the manager concluded by recommending +certain additional alterations in the third act. + +"At last the poet understood,--a really marvelous occurrence, because +poets, who understand everything else and can tell you why the condor +flies so high, who soar to the skies and descend into the abyss and +penetrate the secret thoughts of all created things, are not capable +of realizing that there are times when their works do not please those +who hear them. Our young man, whom we will call Inocencio, received +back his manuscript somewhat peevishly, and for a while nothing +further was heard of him. But at last, doubtless after a good deal of +profound meditation, he presented himself on a certain morning at the +home of Clotilde. I hardly need tell you that he carried his +manuscript under his arm. + +"He waited patiently in the parlor while our young friend completed +her toilet, and when at last she made her appearance, she saw before +her a blushing and confused young man, who nevertheless was +pleasant-mannered and fashionably dressed, and who besought with +stammering lips that she would do him the favor of listening while he +read his play. Women, you must know, find a singular pleasure in +playing the rôle of patroness, especially in regard to young men of +pleasant manners and fashionable dress. So that it is not at all +surprising that Clotilde listened patiently to the play and even +pronounced it acceptable. + +"The young man intrusted himself wholly to her guidance, deposited his +manuscript in her pretty hands, as though it were a new-born child, +and she received it like a doting mother, took it under her +protection, and promised to watch over its precious existence and +introduce it to the world. The young man declared that such an +intention was worthy of the noble heart whose fame had already reached +his ears. Clotilde replied that it was no kindness on her part to work +to have the play produced, but only an act of justice. The young man +said that this idea was exceedingly flattering, because Clotilde's +great talent and the accuracy of her judgments were well known to +everyone, but that he dared not build upon such an illusion. Clotilde +declared that there were many unmerited reputations in the world, and +one of them was hers, but that on this occasion she felt that she was +on firm ground. + +"The young man replied that when the river roars the water toils, and +that when the whole world unites in admiring not only the exceptional +beauty and artistic inspiration of a certain person, but also her +splendid genius and brilliant intellect, it was necessary to bow one's +head. Clotilde said that on this occasion she refused to bow hers, +because she was quite convinced that the world was greatly mistaken +regarding what it called her talent, which was nothing more nor less +than pure instinct. The young man cried out to heaven against such +mystification, for which there was absolutely no excuse. Then, +promptly calming down, he declared himself profoundly moved by the +modesty of his patroness, and swore by all the saints in heaven that +he never had met her equal,--with the result that the manuscript was +momentarily gaining ground in the heart of our sympathetic friend, and +that the young man, overwhelmed with emotion, took his leave of her +until the following day. + +"On the following day, Clotilde called upon the manager, and by +threatening to break her contract, forced from him a promise to +produce Inocencio's play as soon as possible. That same afternoon, the +poet expressed his thanks to his patroness and promptly took her into +his confidence. He belonged to a distinguished provincial family, +although without great financial resources. It was in the hope of +bettering them that he had come to Madrid, relying solely upon his +genius. In his native town they said that he had talent, and that if +the verses which he had contributed to the _Tagus Echo_ had been +published in Madrid, he would be talked of as a second Nuñez de Arce y +Grilo. He did not know whether that was so; but he felt that his heart +was full of noble sentiments, and he loved the theater better than the +apple of his eye. Would he succeed in being an Ayala or a Tamayo? +Would he be rejected by the public? It was an insoluble mystery to +him. + +"During this interview, Clotilde became convinced of two very +important things: namely, that Inocencio possessed a talent so great +that his head could scarcely hold it, and secondly, that there was no +one else in all Madrid who could wear so conspicuous a necktie with +such charming effect. I need not tell you that their confidential +interviews increased in frequency, and that consequently Clotilde came +day by day more completely under the fascinating influence of that +supernatural necktie. In the end, she yielded herself vanquished, and +surrendered herself to it, bound hand and foot. The necktie deigned to +raise her from the ground and grant her the favor of its affection." + +"What about a necktie?" asked one of the company, who had been +nodding. + +Don Jerónimo took an immense, an infernal pull at his cigar, in +testimony of his annoyance, then proceeded with no further notice: + +"Meanwhile the rehearsals of Inocencio's play had begun. It was +called, if I am not mistaken, _Stooping to Conquer_,--excuse me, no, I +believe it was just the reverse, _Conquering to Stoop_. Well, at all +events, it contained a participle and an infinitive. Before long I +became aware that lover-like relations had been established between +our fair friend and the author, and since, as a matter of fact, even +if Inocencio was a bad poet, as Pepe insisted, he seemed like a good +lad, I was very glad it had happened and I helped it along as much as +I could. Clotilde confided in me, and declared that she was +desperately in love; that her ambitions no longer had anything to do +with the art of the stage, which seemed to her an unbearable slavery; +that her ideal was to live tranquilly, even if it were in a garret, +united to the man whom she adored; that woman was born to be the +guardian angel of the fireside, and not to divert the public, and +that she herself would rather be queen of a humble little apartment +illuminated with love, than to receive all the applause in the world. +In short, gentlemen, our young friend was living in the midst of an +idyllic dream. + +"Inocencio was, to all appearance, no less in love than she. I +frequently encountered them walking through the unfrequented by-paths +of the Retiro, at a respectable distance from her mother, who lingered +opportunely to examine the first opening buds of flowers or some +curious insect. Mothers, at this critical period of courtship, are +under an obligation to be admirers of the works of nature. The young +pair of turtle-doves would pause when they caught sight of me and +greet me blushingly. I cannot conceal from you that, however much I +felt the loss to art, I was delighted that Clotilde was going to be +married. A woman always needs the protection of a man. And there is no +question that so far as outward appearance went, they were worthy of +one another. Inocencio certainly was a most attractive young fellow. + +"At the theater they talked of nothing else than of this wedding, +which was still in the bud. Everybody was delighted, because Clotilde +is the only actress, since the beginning of the world, who took it +into her head to attempt what until now was regarded as impossible, to +make herself beloved by her companions. + +"I observed, nevertheless,--for you know that I am an observant +person: it is the only quality that I possess, that of observation, a +thing to which the authors of today attach no importance. Today, in +the drama, everything is so much dried leaves, a lot of moonshine, +which, they let filter down through the foliage of the trees, a lot of +description of dawn and twilight, and a lot of other similar +pastry-shop stuff. That's all there is to it! When any fledgling +author comes to me with nonsense of that sort, I say to him: 'Get down +to the facts! Get down to the facts!' The facts are the drama, which +doesn't exist in the great part of the above-mentioned." + +"Aren't you exciting yourself, Don Jerónimo?" + +"Well, as I was telling you, I observed that as the rehearsals +progressed the ascendency of Inocencio over our young friend +increased. The tone in which he addressed her was no longer the humble +and courteous tone of earlier days; he corrected her frequently in her +manner of delivery, he dictated the attitudes and gestures which she +should adopt, and sometimes, when the actress did not quite understand +his wishes, he allowed himself to address her publicly in rather +severe terms, and the way he looked at her was severer still. Our poet +was already thundering and lightning like a true lord and master. + +"Clotilde accepted it with good grace. She, who had always been so +haughty, even towards the most distinguished authors, stretched out +and shrank back like soft wax in the hands of that insignificant +jackanapes. You ought to have seen the humility with which she +accepted his suggestions, and the distress which his censures caused +her. All the time that the rehearsal lasted she kept her eyes steadily +fixed upon him, watching like a submissive slave to catch the wishes +of her master. The poet, lolling at ease in an arm-chair, with a +brazier of hot coals before him, directed the action in as dictatorial +a manner as either Gracia Gutierrez or Ayala could have done. A mere +glance from him sufficed to make Clotilde flush crimson or turn pale. +The other actors made no protest, out of consideration for her. When +she had finished her scene she came eagerly to take her seat beside +her betrothed, who sometimes deigned to welcome her with a haughty +smile, and at other times with an Olympian indifference. I, meanwhile, +looked on, scandalized. + +"On one occasion I came upon them from behind, and overheard what they +were saying. Clotilde was speaking, and hotly maintaining that +Inocencio's _Stooping to Conquer_ or _Conquering to Stoop_ was better +than _A New Drama_. The young man protested feebly. On another +occasion they were speaking of their future union. Clotilde was +picturing in impassioned phrases the nook to which they would go to +hide their happiness; some lofty spot on the hills of Salamanca, a +dear little nest, bathed in sunlight, where Inocencio could work in +his private study, writing plays, while she sat by his side and +embroidered in absolute silence. When he was tired they could talk for +a while, to let him rest, and then she would give him a kiss and go +back again to her work. In the evening they would go out, arm in arm, +to take a short walk, and then home again. But no more of the +theater; she abhorred it with all her soul. In the spring they would +go every morning to take a walk in the Retiro and take chocolate under +the trees; in the summer they would spend a month or two in +Inocencio's birthplace, so as to bring back from the country a supply +of good color and health for the coming winter. + +"The description of this tender idyl, which, even if I am a confirmed +bachelor, set my heart beating within my breast, produced no other +effect upon the new author than an insolent somnolence which would not +disappear until he suddenly raised his imperious voice to admonish +some one of the actors. + +"At last the opening night arrived. We were all anxious to see the +result. The prevailing opinion was that the play offered little +novelty; but since Clotilde had staked her whole soul upon the +outcome, a big success was predicted. At the dress rehearsal our young +friend had achieved genuine prodigies. There was a moment when the few +of us whom curiosity had brought to witness it, rose to our feet +electrified, convulsed, making a most unseemly outcry. You have no +conception how marvelously she rendered her part. Then and there, all +of a sudden, an idea entered my head. Recalling all my observations of +Clotilde's love affair, I felt convinced, in view of the evidence, +that Inocencio had had no other purpose in winning her love than to +assure an exceptional interpretation of the leading _rôle_ of his +play, and a flattering outcome of his venture. I decided not to +communicate my suspicions to anyone. I kept silent and hoped, but +there is no doubt that from that time on the young man was decidedly +out of favor with me. + +"The noise which Inocencio's friends had been making in regard to the +theme of his play, the fact that Clotilde had chosen it for her +benefit performance, and the wide-spread rumor that the celebrated +actress was going to win a signal triumph in it, all worked together +to help the speculators to dispose of every seat in the house at +fabulous prices. I know a marquis who paid eleven _duros_ for two +orchestra stalls. This room where we are now sitting was filled, just +as it is annually, with flowers and presents; it was impossible to +move about in the midst of such a conglomeration of porcelain, books +with costly bindings, ebony work-boxes, picture-frames, and no end of +other fancy trifles. + +"The audience room was unusually brilliant. The most resplendent +ladies, the men most distinguished in politics, literature, and +finance; in short, the _high life_, as the phrase goes, was all there. +But even more brilliant and more radiant was Inocencio himself; +radiant with glory and happiness, and graciously receiving the crowds +of visitors who came to see the presents, dictating orders to the +call-boys and scene-shifters regarding the proper setting of the +scene, and multiplying his smiles and hand-shakings to the point of +infinity. Clotilde also seemed more beautiful than ever, and her +expressive face revealed the tender emotion which possessed her, as +well as her deep anxiety to win laurels for her future husband. + +"The curtain arose and everyone hurried to occupy his seat. In the +wings there was no one save the author and three or four of his +friends. The opening scenes were received as usual with indifference; +the following ones with a little more cordiality; the versification +was fluent and polished, and, as you know, the public appreciates +sugar-coated phrases. At last the moment arrived for Clotilde's +entrance, and a faint murmur of curiosity and expectation ran through +the audience. She spoke her lines discreetly, but without much warmth; +it was easy to see that she was afraid. The curtain fell in a dead +silence. + +"Immediately the waiting-room and passage-way were filled by +Inocencio's friends, who came eagerly to tell him that this first +performance of his play was a great success,--but what was the matter +with Clotilde? She hardly put any movement into her part,--and she was +usually so much alive, so tremendously forceful! Our young friend +acknowledged that, as a matter of fact, she had felt badly scared, and +that this had hampered her seriously. The author, greatly alarmed for +the fate of his work, endeavored to persuade her that there was +nothing to be afraid of, that all she had to do was to be herself, and +that she was not to think of him at all while she spoke her lines. + +"'I can't help it,' insisted Clotilde, 'all the time that I am +speaking I keep thinking that you are the author, and imagining that +the play is not going to succeed, and it makes me so frightened.' + +"Inocencio was in despair; he tried entreaties, advice, arguments, he +embraced her without caring who saw him; he tried to infuse courage +into her by appealing to her vanity as an artist; in short, he did +everything imaginable to save his play. + +"The second act began. Clotilde had a few pathetic scenes. In the +beginning there was a certain slight disturbance in the audience, and +this sufficed to disconcert her completely, and to make her acting +irremediably bad, worse than she had ever acted in her whole life. A +good deal of coughing was heard, and some loud murmurs of impatience. +At the end of that second act a few indiscreet friends tried to +applaud, but the audience drowned them out with an immense and +terrifying series of hisses. The author, who was standing by my side, +pale as death, relieved his feelings with a flood of coarse words, and +made his way to Pepe's room, which faces that of Clotilde, and where +his friends consoled him, casting the whole blame for the failure upon +her, and inflaming more and more the anger surging in his heart. +Meanwhile, our friend was utterly crushed and overcome, and +continually calling for her Inocencio. In order to spare her further +trouble, I told her that the author had accepted the situation +resignedly, and had left the theater to get a breath of air. The +unhappy girl bitterly blamed herself, taking the entire failure on her +own shoulders. + +"The curtain rose for the third act; and we all gathered anxiously at +the wings. Clotilde, by a powerful effort of will, showed herself at +first more self-possessed than in the previous acts, but the audience +was in a mood to have some sport, and nothing could have made them +take the play seriously. When the public once scents a trail, it is +like a wild beast that smells blood; there is no way of heading it +off, and you have got to let it have its flesh at any cost. And there +is no doubt that on this occasion it gorged itself full. Coughs, +laughter, sneezes, stampings, hisses,--there was a little of +everything. Tears sprang to our poor friend's eyes, and she seemed +upon the point of fainting. When the curtain finally fell her eyes +sought on all sides for her lover, but he had disappeared. In her +dressing-room, where I followed her, she sobbed, groaned, gave way to +despair, called herself a fool, said that she was going to hire +herself out on some farm to tend the geese and more to the same +effect. It cost me some hard work to calm her down, but at last I +succeeded so that she sank into a sort of silent lethargy. In the +sorrow which her eyes revealed I saw that what tormented her horribly +was the absence of Inocencio. + +"The door of the room was suddenly flung open. The defeated poet made +his appearance; he was quite pale but apparently calm. Nevertheless, I +perceived at the first glance that his calmness was assumed, and that +the smile which contracted his lips closely resembled that of a +condemned man who wishes to die bravely. + +"A gleam of joy illuminated Clotilde's face. She rose swiftly and +flung her arms around his neck, saying in a broken voice: + +"'I have ruined you, my poor Inocencio, I have ruined you! How +generous you are! But listen, I swear to you, by the memory of my +father, that I will atone for the humiliation you have just suffered.' + +"'There is no need for you to atone, my dear girl,' replied the poet, +in a soft tone under which a disdainful anger could be felt, 'my +family has not achieved its illustrious name through the intercession +of any actor. From this day henceforth I gladly renounce the theater +and all that is connected with it. Accordingly,--I wish you good-day.' +And, unclasping the arms that imprisoned his neck, and smiling +sarcastically, he retreated a few steps and took his leave. Clotilde +gazed at him in a stupor, then fell unconscious on the divan. + +"At the sight of her in such a state I felt my blood take fire, and I +followed the young man out. I overtook him near the stairs, and, +grasping him by the wrist, I said to him: + +"'A word with you. The first thing that a man has to be, before he can +be a poet, is a gentleman,--and that is something you are not. Your +play was hissed because it lacks the same thing that you lack,--and +that is a heart. Here, sir, is my card.'" + +"And did you not send him your seconds, Don Jerónimo?" inquired the +medical student. + +"Silence, silence!" exclaimed another of the group, "here is +Clotilde." + +And, in fact, the charming actress at that moment appeared in the +doorway, and her large and sad black eyes, all the more beautiful +beneath her white Louis XV coiffure, smiled tenderly upon her +faithful friends. + + + + +CAPTAIN VENENO'S PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Pedro Antonio de Alarcón + + +"Great heavens! What a woman!" cried the captain, and stamped with +fury. "Not without reason have I been trembling and in fear of her +from the first time I saw her! It must have been a warning of fate +that I stopped playing _écarté_ with her. It was also a bad omen that +I passed so many sleepless nights. Was there ever mortal in a worse +perplexity than I am? How can I leave her alone without a protector, +loving her, as I do, more than my own life? And, on the other hand, +how can I marry her, after all my declaimings against marriage?" + +Then turning to Augustias--"What would they say of me in the club? +What would people say of me, if they met me in the street with a woman +on my arm, or if they found me at home, just about to feed a child in +swaddling clothes? I--to have children? To worry about them? To live +in eternal fear that they might fall sick or die? Augustias, believe +me, as true as there is a God above us, I am absolutely unfit for it! +I should behave in such a way that after a short while you would call +upon heaven either to be divorced or to become a widow. Listen to my +advice: do not marry me, even if I ask you." + +"What a strange creature you are," said the young woman, without +allowing herself to be at all discomposed, and sitting very erect in +her chair. "All that you are only telling to yourself! From what do +you conclude that I wish to be married to you; that I would accept +your offer, and that I should not prefer living by myself, even if I +had to work day and night, as so many girls do who are orphans?" + +"How do I come to that conclusion?" answered the captain with the +greatest candor. "Because it cannot be otherwise. Because we love each +other. Because we are drawn to each other. Because a man such as I, +and a woman such as you, cannot live in any other way! Do you suppose +I do not understand that? Don't you suppose I have reflected on it +before now? Do you think I am indifferent in your good name and +reputation? I have spoken plainly in order to speak, in order to fly +from my own conviction, in order to examine whether I can escape from +this terrible dilemma which is robbing me of my sleep, and whether I +can possibly find an expedient so that I need not marry you--to do +which I shall finally be compelled, if you stand by your resolve to +make your way alone!" + +"Alone! Alone!" repeated Augustias, roguishly. "And why not with a +worthier companion? Who tells you that I shall not some day meet a man +whom I like, and who is not afraid to marry me?" + +"Augustias! let us skip that!" growled the captain, his face turning +scarlet. + +"And why should we not talk about it?" + +"Let us pass over that, and let me say, at the same time, that I will +murder the man who dares to ask for your hand. But it is madness on +my part to be angry without any reason. I am not so dull as not to see +how we two stand. Shall I tell you? We love each other. Do not tell me +I am mistaken! That would be lying. And here is the proof: if you did +not love me, I, too, should not love you! Let us try to meet one +another halfway. I ask for a delay of ten years. When I shall have +completed my half century, and when, a feeble old man, I shall have +become familiar with the idea of slavery, then we will marry without +anyone knowing about it. We will leave Madrid, and go to the country, +where we shall have no spectators, where there will be nobody to make +fun of me. But until this happens, please take half of my income +secretly, and without any human soul ever knowing anything about it. +You continue to live here, and I remain in my house. We will see each +other, but only in the presence of witnesses--for instance, in +society. We will write to each other every day. So as not to endanger +your good name, I will never pass through this street, and on Memorial +Day only we will go to the cemetery together with Rosa." + +Augustias could not but smile at the last proposal of the good +captain, and her smile was not mocking, but contented and happy, as if +some cherished hope had dawned in her heart, as if it were the first +ray of the sun of happiness which was about to rise in her heaven! But +being a woman--though as brave and free from artifices as few of +them--she yet managed to subdue the signs of joy rising within her. +She acted as if she cherished not the slightest hope, and said with a +distant coolness which is usually the special and genuine sign of +chaste reserve: + +"You make yourself ridiculous with your peculiar conditions. You +stipulate for the gift of an engagement-ring, for which nobody has yet +asked you." + +"I know still another way out--for a compromise, but that is really +the last one. Do you fully understand, my young lady from Aragon? It +is the last way out, which a man, also from Aragon, begs leave to +explain to you." + +She turned her head and looked straight into his eyes, with an +expression indescribably earnest, captivating, quiet, and full of +expectation. + +The captain had never seen her features so beautiful and expressive; +at that moment she looked to him like a queen. + +"Augustias," said, or rather stammered, this brave soldier, who had +been under fire a hundred times, and who had made such a deep +impression on the young girl through his charging under a rain of +bullets like a lion, "I have the honor to ask for your hand on one +certain, essential, unchangeable condition. Tomorrow morning--today--a +soon as the papers are in order--as quickly as possible. I can live +without you no longer!" + +The glances of the young girl became milder, and she rewarded him for +his decided heroism with a tender and bewitching smile. + +"But I repeat that it is on one condition," the bold warrior hastened +to repeat, feeling that Augustias's glances made him confused and +weak. + +"On what condition?" asked the young girl, turning fully round, and +now holding him under the witchery of her sparkling black eyes. + +"On the condition," he stammered, "that, in case we have children, we +send them to the orphanage. I mean--on this point I will never yield. +Well, do you consent? For heaven's sake, say yes!" + +"Why should I not consent to it, Captain Veneno?" answered Augustias, +with a peal of laughter. "You shall take them there yourself, or, +better still, we both of us will take them there. And we will give +them up without kissing them, or anything else! Don't you think we +shall take them there?" + +Thus spoke Augustias, and looked at the captain with exquisite joy in +her eyes. The good captain thought he would die of happiness; a flood +of tears burst from his eyes; he folded the blushing girl in his arms, +and said: + +"So I am lost?" + +"Irretrievably lost, Captain Veneno," answered Augustias. + + * * * * * + +One morning in May, 1852--that is, four years after the scene just +described--a friend of mine, who told me this story, stopped his horse +in front of a mansion on San Francisco Avenue, in Madrid; he threw the +reins to his groom, and asked the long-coated footman who met him at +the door: + +"Is your master at home?" + +"If your honor will be good enough to walk upstairs, you will find +him in the library. His excellency does not like to have visitors +announced. Everybody can go up to him directly." + +"Fortunately I know the house thoroughly," said the stranger to +himself, while he mounted the stairs. "In the library! Well, well, who +would have thought of Captain Veneno ever taking to the sciences?" + +Wandering through the rooms, the visitor met another servant, who +repeated, "The master is in the library." And at last he came to the +door of the room in question, opened it quickly, and stood, almost +turned to stone for astonishment, before the remarkable group which it +offered to his view. + +In the middle of the room, on the carpet which covered the floor, a +man was crawling on all-fours. On his back rode a little fellow about +three years old, who was kicking the man's sides with his heels. +Another small boy, who might have been a year and a half old, stood in +front of the man's head, and had evidently been tumbling his hair. One +hand held the father's neckerchief, and the little fellow was tugging +at it as if it had been a halter, shouting with delight in his merry +child's voice: + +"Gee up, donkey! Gee up!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's First Love (Little Blue Book #1195), by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 15610-8.txt or 15610-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/1/15610/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: First Love (Little Blue Book #1195) + And Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>First Love</h1> +<h2>And Other Fascinating Stories<br /> +of Spanish Life<br /><br /></h2> + +<h3>Emilia Pardo-Bazan<br /> +and Others<br /><br /><br /></h3> + +<h3>LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1195<br /> +Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius <br /><br /></h3> + +<h3>HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY<br /> +GIRARD, KANSAS</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></h2> + +<ul> +<li><a href="#FIRST_LOVE"><b>First Love</b></a></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Emilia Pardo-Bazan.</i></span></li> +<li> </li> +<li><a href="#AN_ANDALUSIAN_DUEL"><b>An Andalusian Duel</b></a></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Serafin Estebanez Calderon.</i></span></li> +<li> </li> +<li><a href="#MARIQUITA_THE_BALD"><b>Mariquita the Bald</b></a></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch.</i></span></li> +<li> </li> +<li><a href="#THE_LOVE_OF_CLOTILDE"><b>The Love of Clotilde</b></a></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Armando Palacio Valdés.</i></span></li> +<li> </li> +<li> <a href="#CAPTAIN_VENENOS_PROPOSAL_OF_MARRIAGE"><b>Captain Veneno's Proposal of Marriage</b></a></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Pedro Antonio de Alarcón.</i></span></li> +</ul> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FIRST_LOVE" id="FIRST_LOVE"></a>FIRST LOVE<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a></h2> + +<div class="center"><b><span class="smcap">Emilia Pardo-Bazan</span></b></div> + + +<p>How old was I then? Eleven or twelve years? More probably thirteen, +for before then is too early to be seriously in love; but I won't +venture to be certain, considering that in Southern countries the +heart matures early, if that organ is to blame for such perturbations.</p> + +<p>If I do not remember well <i>when</i>, I can at least say exactly <i>how</i> my +first love revealed itself. I was very fond—as soon as my aunt had +gone to church to perform her evening devotions—of slipping into her +bedroom and rummaging her chest of drawers, which she kept in +admirable order. Those drawers were to me a museum; in them I always +came across something rare or antique, which exhaled an archaic and +mysterious scent, the aroma of the sandalwood fans which perfumed her +white linen. Pin-cushions of satin now faded; knitted mittens, +carefully wrapped in tissue paper; prints of saints; sewing materials; +a reticule of blue velvet embroidered with bugles, an amber and silver +rosary would appear from the corners: I used to ponder over them, and +return them to their place. But one day—I remember as well as if it +were today—in the corner of the top drawer, and lying on some collars +of old lace, I saw something gold glittering—I put in my hand,<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a> +unwittingly crumpled the lace, and drew out a portrait, an ivory +miniature, about three inches long, in a frame of gold.</p> + +<p>I was struck at first sight. A sunbeam streamed through the window and +fell upon the alluring form, which seemed to wish to step out of its +dark background and come towards me. It was the most lovely creature, +such as I had never seen except in the dreams of my adolescence. The +lady of the portrait must have been some twenty odd years; she was no +simple maiden, no half-opened rosebud, but a woman in the full +resplendency of her beauty. Her face was oval, but not too long, her +lips full, half-open and smiling, her eyes cast a languishing +side-glance, and she had a dimple on her chin as if formed by the tip +of Cupid's playful finger. Her head-dress was strange but elegant; a +compact group of curls plastered conewise one over the other covered +her temples, and a basket of braided hair rose on the top of her head. +This old-fashioned head-dress, which was trussed up from the nape of +her neck, disclosed all the softness of her fresh young throat, on +which the dimple of her chin was reduplicated more vaguely and +delicately.</p> + +<p>As for the dress—I do not venture to consider whether our +grandmothers were less modest than our wives are, or if the confessors +of past times were more indulgent than those of the present; I am +inclined to think the latter, for seventy years ago women prided +themselves upon being Christianlike and devout, and would not have<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a> +disobeyed the director of their conscience in so grave and important a +matter. What is undeniable is, that if in the present day any lady +were to present herself in the garb of the lady of the portrait, there +would be a scandal; for from her waist (which began at her armpits) +upwards, she was only veiled by light folds of diaphanous gauze, which +marked out, rather than covered, two mountains of snow, between which +meandered a thread of pearls. With further lack of modesty she +stretched out two rounded arms worthy of Juno, ending in finely molded +hands—when I say <i>hands</i> I am not exact, for, strictly speaking, only +one hand could be seen, and that held a richly embroidered +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>Even today I am astonished at the startling effect which the +contemplation of that miniature produced upon me, and how I remained +in ecstasy, scarcely breathing, devouring the portrait with my eyes. I +had already seen here and there prints representing beautiful women. +It often happened that in the illustrated papers, in the mythological +engravings of our dining-room, or in a shop-window, that a beautiful +face, or a harmonious and graceful figure attracted my precociously +artistic gaze. But the miniature encountered in my aunt's drawer, +apart from its great beauty, appeared to me as if animated by a subtle +and vital breath; you could see it was not the caprice of a painter, +but the image of a real and actual person of flesh and blood. The warm +and rich tone of the tints made you surmise that the blood was tepid +beneath that mother-of-pearl skin. The <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>lips were slightly parted to +disclose the enameled teeth; and to complete the illusion there ran +round the frame a border of natural hair, chestnut in color, wavy and +silky, which had grown on the temples of the original.</p> + +<p>As I have said, it was more than a copy, it was the reflection of a +living person from whom I was only separated by a wall of glass.—I +seized it, breathed upon it, and it seemed to me that the warmth of +the mysterious deity communicated itself to my lips and circulated +through my veins. At this moment I heard footsteps in the corridor. It +was my aunt returning from her prayers. I heard her asthmatic cough, +and the dragging of her gouty feet. I had only just time to put the +miniature into the drawer, shut it, and approach the window, adopting +an innocent and indifferent attitude.</p> + +<p>My aunt entered noisily, for the cold of the church had exasperated +her catarrh, now chronic. Upon seeing me, her wrinkled eyes +brightened, and giving me a friendly tap with her withered hand, she +asked me if I had been turning over her drawers as usual.</p> + +<p>Then, with a chuckle:</p> + +<p>"Wait a bit, wait a bit," she added, "I have something for you, +something you will like."</p> + +<p>And she pulled out of her vast pocket a paper bag, and out of the bag +three or four gum lozenges, sticking together in a cake, which gave me +a feeling of nausea.</p> + +<p>My aunt's appearance did not invite one to open one's mouth and devour +these sweets: the course of years, her loss of teeth, her <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>eyes dimmed +to an unusual degree, the sprouting of a mustache or bristles on her +sunken-in mouth, which was three inches wide, dull gray locks +fluttering above her sallow temples, a neck flaccid and livid as the +crest of the turkey when in a good temper.—In short, I did not take +the lozenges. Ugh! A feeling of indignation, a manly protest rose in +me, and I said forcibly:</p> + +<p>"I do not want it, I don't want it."</p> + +<p>"You don't want it? What a wonder! You who are greedier than a cat!"</p> + +<p>"I am not a little boy," I exclaimed, drawing myself up, and standing +on tiptoes; "I don't care for sweets."</p> + +<p>My aunt looked at me half good-humoredly and half ironically, and at +last, giving way to the feeling of amusement I caused her, burst out +laughing, by which she disfigured herself, and exposed the horrible +anatomy of her jaws. She laughed so heartily that her chin and nose +met, hiding her lips, and emphasizing two wrinkles, or rather two deep +furrows, and more than a dozen lines on her cheeks and eyelids; at the +same time her head and body shook with the laughter, until at last her +cough began to interrupt the bursts, and between laughing and coughing +the old lady involuntarily spluttered all over my face. Humiliated, +and full of disgust, I escaped rapidly thence to my mother's room, +where I washed myself with soap and water, and began to muse on the +lady of the portrait.</p> + +<p>And from that day and hour I could not keep my thoughts from her. As +soon as my aunt <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>went out, to slip into her room, open the drawer, +bring out the miniature, and lose myself in contemplation, was the +work of a minute. By dint of looking at it, I fancied that her +languishing eyes, through the voluptuous veiling, of her eyelashes, +were fixed in mine, and that her white bosom heaved. I became ashamed +to kiss her, imagining she would be annoyed at my audacity, and only +pressed her to my heart or held her against my cheek. All my actions +and thoughts referred to the lady; I behaved towards her with the most +extraordinary refinement and super-delicacy. Before entering my aunt's +room and opening the longed-for drawer, I washed, combed my hair, and +tidied myself, as I have seen since is usually done before repairing +to a love appointment.</p> + +<p>I often happened to meet in the street other boys of my age, very +proud of their slip of a sweetheart, who would exultingly show me +love-letters, photographs, and flowers, and who asked me if I hadn't a +sweetheart with whom to correspond. A feeling of inexplicable +bashfulness tied my tongue, and I only replied with an enigmatic and +haughty smile. And when they questioned me as to what I thought of the +beauty of their little maidens, I would shrug my shoulders and +disdainfully call them <i>ugly mugs</i>.</p> + +<p>One Sunday I went to play in the house of some little girl-cousins, +really very pretty, the eldest of whom was not yet fifteen. We were +amusing ourselves looking into a stereoscope, when suddenly one of the +little girls, the youngest, who counted twelve summers at most, +<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>secretly seized my hand, and in some confusion and blushing as red as +a brazier, whispered in my ear:</p> + +<p>"Take this."</p> + +<p>At the same time I felt in the palm of my hand something soft and +fresh, and saw that it was a rosebud with its green foliage. The +little girl ran away smiling and casting a side-glance at me; but I, +with a Puritanism worthy of Joseph, cried out in my turn:</p> + +<p>"Take this!"</p> + +<p>And I threw the rosebud at her nose, a rebuff which made her tearful +and pettish with me the whole afternoon, and for which she has not +pardoned me even now, though she is married and has three children.</p> + +<p>The two or three hours which my aunt spent morning and evening +together at church being too short for my admiration of the entrancing +portrait, I resolved at last to keep the miniature in my pocket, and +went about all day hiding myself from people just as if I had +committed some crime. I fancied that the portrait from the depth of +its prison of cloth could see all my actions, and I arrived at such a +ridiculous extremity, that if I wanted to scratch myself, pull up my +sock, or do anything else not in keeping with the idealism of my +chaste love, I first drew out the miniature, put it in a safe place, +and then considered myself free to do whatever I wanted. In fact, +since I had accomplished the theft, there was no limit to my vagaries. +At night I hid it under the pillow, and slept in an attitude of +defense; the portrait remained near the wall, I outside, and I <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>awoke +a thousand times, fearing somebody would come to bereave me of my +treasure. At last I drew it from beneath the pillow and slipped it +between my nightshirt and left breast, on which the following day +could be seen the imprint of the chasing of the frame.</p> + +<p>The contact of the dear miniature gave me delicious dreams. The lady +of the portrait, not in effigy, but in her natural size and +proportions, alive, graceful, affable, beautiful, would come towards +me to conduct me to her palace by a rapid and flying train. With sweet +authority she would make me sit on a stool at her feet, and would pass +her beautifully molded hand over my head, caressing my brow, my eyes, +and loose curls. I read to her out of a big missal, or played the +lute, and she deigned to smile, thanking me for the pleasure which my +reading and songs gave her. At last romantic reminiscences overflowed +in my brain, and sometimes I was a page, and sometimes a troubadour.</p> + +<p>With all these fanciful ideas, the fact is that I began to grow thin +quite perceptibly, which was observed with great disquietude in my +parents and my aunt.</p> + +<p>"In this dangerous and critical age of development, everything is +alarming," said my father, who used to read books of medicine, and +anxiously studied my dark eyelids, my dull eyes, my contracted and +pale lips, and above all, the complete lack of appetite which had +taken possession of me.</p> + +<p>"Play, boy; eat, boy," he would say to me, and I replied to him, +dejectedly:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>"I don't feel inclined."</p> + +<p>They began to talk of distractions, offered to take me to the theater; +stopped my studies, and gave me foaming new milk to drink. Afterwards +they poured cold water over my head and back to fortify my nerves; and +I noticed that my father at table or in the morning when I went to his +bedroom to bid him good morning, would gaze at me fixedly for some +little time, and would sometimes pass his hand down my spine, feeling +the vertebrae. I hypocritically lowered my eyes, resolved to die +rather than confess my crime. As soon as I was free from the +affectionate solicitude of my family, I found myself alone with my +lady of the portrait. At last, to get nearer to her, I thought I would +do away with the cold crystal. I trembled upon putting this into +execution; but at last my love prevailed over the vague fear with +which such a profanation filled me, and with skillful cunning I +succeeded in pulling away the glass and exposing the ivory plate. As I +pressed my lips to the painting I could scent the slight fragrance of +the border of hair, I imagined to myself even more realistically that +it was a living person whom I was grasping with my trembling hands. A +feeling of faintness overpowered me, and I fell unconscious on the +sofa, tightly holding the miniature.</p> + +<p>When I came to my senses I saw my father, my mother, and my aunt, all +bending anxiously over me; I read their terror and alarm in their +faces; my father was feeling my pulse, shaking his head, and +murmuring:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>"His pulse is nothing but a flutter, you can scarcely feel it."</p> + +<p>My aunt, with her claw-like fingers, was trying to take the portrait +from me, and I was mechanically hiding it and grasping it more firmly.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear boy—let go, you are spoiling it!" she exclaimed. "Don't +you see you are smudging it? I am not scolding you, my dear.—I will +show it to you as often as you like, but don't destroy it; let go, you +are injuring it."</p> + +<p>"Let him have it," begged my mother, "the boy is not well."</p> + +<p>"Of all things to ask!" replied the old maid. "Let him have it! And +who will paint another like this—or make me as I was then? Today +nobody paints miniatures—it is a thing of the past, and I also am a +thing of the past, and I am not what is represented there!"</p> + +<p>My eyes dilated with horror; my fingers released their hold on the +picture. I don't know how I was able to articulate:</p> + +<p>"You—the portrait—is you?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you think I am as pretty now, boy? Bah! one is better looking +at twenty-three than at—than at—I don't know what, for I have +forgotten how old I am!"</p> + +<p>My head drooped and I almost fainted again; anyway, my father lifted +me in his arms on to the bed, and made me swallow some tablespoonfuls +of port.</p> + +<p>I recovered very quickly, and never wished to enter my aunt's room +again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_ANDALUSIAN_DUEL" id="AN_ANDALUSIAN_DUEL"></a><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>AN ANDALUSIAN DUEL</h2> + +<div class="center"><b><span class="smcap">Serafin Estebanez Calderon</span></b></div> + + +<p>Through the little square of St. Anna, towards a certain tavern, where +the best wine is to be quaffed in Seville, there walked in measured +steps two men whose demeanor clearly manifested the soil which gave +them birth. He who walked in the middle of the street, taller than the +other by about a finger's length, sported with affected carelessness +the wide, slouched hat of Ecija, with tassels of glass beads and a +ribbon as black as his sins. He wore his cloak gathered under his left +arm; the right, emerging from a turquoise lining, exposed the merino +lambskin with silver clasps. The herdsman's boots—white, with Turkish +buttons,—the breeches gleaming red from below the cloak and covering +the knee, and, above all, his strong and robust appearance, dark curly +hair, and eye like a red-hot coal, proclaimed at a distance that all +this combination belonged to one of those men who put an end to horses +between their knees and tire out the bull with their lance.</p> + +<p>He walked on, arguing with his companion, who was rather spare than +prodigal in his person, but marvelously lithe and supple. The latter +was shod with low shoes, garters united the stockings to the +light-blue breeches, the waistcoat was cane-colored, his sash light +green, and jaunty shoulder-knots, lappets, and rows of buttons +ornamented the carmelite <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>jacket. The open cloak, the hat drawn over +his ear, his short, clean steps, and the manifestations in all his +limbs and movements of agility and elasticity beyond trial plainly +showed that in the arena, carmine cloth in hand, he would mock at the +most frenzied of Jarama bulls, or the best horned beasts from Utrera.</p> + +<p>I—who adore and die for such people, though the compliment be not +returned—went slowly in the wake of their worships, and, unable to +restrain myself, entered with them the same tavern, or rather +eating-house, since there they serve certain provocatives as well as +wine, and I, as my readers perceive, love to call things by their +right name. I entered and sat down at once, and in such a manner as +not to interrupt Oliver and Roland, and that they might not notice me, +when I saw that, as if believing themselves alone, they threw their +arms with an amicable gesture round each others' neck, and thus began +their discourse:</p> + +<p>"Pulpete," said the taller, "now that we are going to meet each +other, knife in hand—you here, I there,—<i>one, two</i>,—<i>on your +guard</i>,—<i>triz, traz</i>,—<i>have that</i>,—<i>take this and call it what +you like</i>—let us first drain a tankard to the music and measure +of some songs."</p> + +<p>"Señor Balbeja," replied Pulpete, drawing his face aside and spitting +with the greatest neatness and pulchritude towards his shoe, "I am not +the kind of man either for La Gorja or other similar earthly matters, +or because a steel tongue is sheathed in my body, or my weasand slit, +or for any other such trifle, to <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>be provoked or vexed with such a +friend as Balbeja. Let the wine be brought, and then, we will sing; +and afterwards blood—blood to the hilt."</p> + +<p>The order was given, they clinked glasses, and, looking one at the +other, sang a Sevillian song.</p> + +<p>This done, they threw off their cloaks with an easy grace, and +unsheathed their knives with which to prick one another, the one +Flemish with a white haft, the other from Guadix, with a guard to the +hilt, both blades dazzling in their brightness, and sharpened and +ground enough for operating upon cataracts, much less ripping up +bellies and bowels. The two had already cleft the air several times +with the said lancets, their cloak wound round their left arm—first +drawing closer, then back, now more boldly and in bounds—when Pulpete +hoisted the flag for parley, and said:</p> + +<p>"Balbeja, my friend, I only beg you to do me the favor not to fan my +face with <i>Juilon</i> your knife, since a slash might use it so ill that +my mother who bore me would not know me, and I should not like to be +considered ugly; neither is it right to mar and destroy what God made +in His likeness."</p> + +<p>"Agreed," replied Balbeja; "I will aim lower."</p> + +<p>"Except—except my stomach also, for I was ever a friend to +cleanliness, and I should not like to see myself fouled in a bad way, +if your knife and arm played havoc with my liver and intestines."</p> + +<p>"I will strike higher; but let us go on."</p> + +<p>"Take care of my chest, it was always weak."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>"Then just tell me, friend, <i>where</i> am I to sound or tap you?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Balbeja, there's always plenty of time and space to hack at a +man; I have here on my left arm a wen, of which you can make meat as +much as you like."</p> + +<p>"Here goes for it," said Balbeja, and he hurled himself like an arrow; +the other warded off the thrust with his cloak, and both, like skilful +penmen, began again tracing S's and signatures in the air with dashes +and flourishes without, however, raising a particle of skin.</p> + +<p>I do not know what would have been the end of this onslaught, since my +venerable, dry, and shriveled person was not suitable for forming a +point of exclamation between two combatants; and the tavern-keeper +troubled so little about what was happening that he drowned the +stamping of their feet and clatter of the tumbling stools and utensils +by scraping street music on a guitar as loud as he could. Otherwise he +was as calm as if he were entertaining two angels instead of two +devils incarnate.</p> + +<p>I do not know, I repeat, how this scene would have ended, when there +crossed the threshold a parsonage who came to take a part in the +development of the drama. There entered, I say, a woman of twenty to +twenty-two years of age, diminutive in body, superlative in audacity +and grace. Neat and clean hose and shoes, short, black flounced +petticoat, a linked girdle, head-dress or mantilla of fringed taffeta +caught together at the nape of her neck, and a corner of it over her +shoulder, she passed before my eyes with swaying hips, arms akimbo, +and <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>moving her head to and fro as she looked about her on all sides.</p> + +<p>Upon seeing her the tavern-keeper dropped his instrument, and I was +overtaken by perturbation such as I had not experienced for thirty +years (I am, after all, only flesh and blood); but, without halting +for such lay-figures, she advanced to the field of battle.</p> + +<p>There was a lively to-do here; Don Pulpete and Don Balbeja when they +saw Doña Gorja appear, first cause of the disturbance and future prize +for the victor, increased their feints, flourishes, curvets, onsets, +crouching, and bounds—all, however, without touching a hair. Our +Helen witnessed in silence for a long time this scene in history with +that feminine pleasure which the daughters of Eve enjoy at such +critical moments. But gradually her pretty brow clouded over, until, +drawing from her delicate ear, not a flower or earring, but the stump +of a cigar, she hurled it amidst the jousters. Not even Charles V's +cane in the last duel in Spain produced such favorable effects. Both +came forward immediately with formal respect, and each, by reason of +the discomposure of his person and clothes, presumed to urge a title +by which to recommend himself to the fair with the flounces. She, as +though pensive, was going over the passage of arms in her mind, and +then, with firm and confident resolution, spoke thus:</p> + +<p>"And is this affair for me?"</p> + +<p>"Who else should it be for? since I—since nobody—" they replied in +the same breath.</p> + +<p>"Listen, gentlemen," said she. "For females <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>such as I and my parts, +of my charms and descent—daughter of La Gatusa, niece of La Mêndez, +and granddaughter of La Astrosa—know that there are neither pacts nor +compacts, nor any such futile things, nor are any of them worth a +farthing. And when men challenge each other, let the knife do its work +and the red blood flow, so as not to have my mother's daughter present +without giving her the pleasure of snapping her fingers in the face of +the other. If you pretend you are fighting for me, it's a lie; you are +wholly mistaken, and that not by halves. I love neither of you. +Mingalarios of Zafra is to my taste, and he and I look upon you with +scorn and contempt. Good-by, my braves; and, if you like, call my man +to account."</p> + +<p>She spoke, spat, smoothed the saliva with the point of her shoe, +looking Pulpete and Balbeja full in the face, and went out with the +same expressive movements with which she entered.</p> + +<p>The two unvarnished braggarts followed the valorous Doña Gorja with +their eyes; and then with a despicable gesture drew their knives +across their sleeve as though wiping off the blood there might have +been, sheathed them at one and the same time, and said together:</p> + +<p>"Through woman the world was lost, through a woman Spain was lost; but +it has never been known, nor do ballads relate, nor the blind beggars +sing, nor is it heard in the square or markets, that two valiant men +killed each, other for another lover."</p> + +<p>"Give me that fist, Don Pulpete."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>"Your hand, Don Balbeja."</p> + +<p>They spoke and strode out into the street, the best friends in the +world, leaving me all amazed at such whimsicality.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MARIQUITA_THE_BALD" id="MARIQUITA_THE_BALD"></a>MARIQUITA THE BALD</h2> + +<div class="center"><b><span class="smcap">Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch</span></b></div> + + +<p>It is as sorry a matter to use words of whose meaning one is ignorant +as it is a blemish for a man of sense to speak of what he knows +nothing about. I say this to those of you who may have the present +story in your hands, however often you may have happened to have heard +<i>Mariquita the Bald</i> mentioned, and I swear by my doublet that you +shall soon know who Mariquita the Bald was, as well as I know who ate +the Christmas turkey, setting aside the surmise that it certainly must +have been a mouth.</p> + +<p>I desire, therefore, to enlighten your ignorance of this subject, and +beg to inform you that the said noted Maria (Mariquita is a diminutive +of Maria) was born in the District of Segovia, and in the town of San +Garcia, the which town is famed for the beauty of the maidens reared +within its walls, who for the most part have such gentle and lovely +faces that may I behold such around me at the hour of my death. +Maria's father was an honest farmer, by name Juan Lanas, a Christian +old man and much beloved, who had inherited no mean estate from his +forefathers, though with but little wit in his crown,—a lack which +was <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>the cause of much calamity to both the father and the daughter, +for in the times to which we have attained, God forgive me if it is +not necessary to have more of the knave than of the fool in one's +composition.</p> + +<p>Now it came to pass that Juan Lanas, for the castigation of his sins, +must needs commit himself to a lawsuit with one of his neighbors about +a vine stock which was worth about fifty <i>maravedis</i>; and Juan was in +the right, and the judges gave the verdict in his favor, so that he +won his case, excepting that the suit lasted no less than ten years +and the costs amounted to nothing less than fifty thousand +<i>maravedis</i>, not to speak of a disease of the eyes which, after all +was over, left him blind. When he found himself with diminished +property and without his eyesight, in sorrow and disgust he turned +into money such part of his patrimony as sufficed to rid him of the +hungry herd of scriveners and lawyers, and took his way to Toledo with +his daughter, who was already entering upon her sixteenth year, and +had matured into one of the most beautiful, graceful, and lovable +damsels to be found throughout all Castile and the kingdoms beyond.</p> + +<p>For she was white as the lily and red like the rose, straight and tall +of stature, and slender in the waist, with fair, shapely hips; and +again her foot and hand were plump and small to a marvel, and she +possessed a head of hair which reached to her knees. For I knew the +widow Sarmiento who was their housekeeper, and she told me how she +could scarcely clasp Mariquita's hair with both hands, and that <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>she +could not comb the hair unless Maria stood up and the housekeeper +mounted on a footstool, for if Maria sat down the long tresses swept +the ground, and therefore became all entangled.</p> + +<p>And do not imagine, her beauty and grace being such, that she sinned +greatly in pride and levity, as is the wont of girls in this age. She +was as humble as a cloistered lay-sister, and as silent as if she were +not a woman, and patient as the sucking lamb, and industrious as the +ant, clean as the ermine, and pure as a saint of those times in which, +by the grace of the Most High, saintly women were born into the world. +But I must confide to you in friendship that our Mariquita was not a +little vain about her hair, and loved to display it, and for this +reason, now in the streets, now when on a visit, now when at mass, it +is said she used to subtilely loosen her mantilla so that her tresses +streamed down her back, the while feigning forgetfulness and +carelessness. She never wore a hood, for she said it annoyed her and +choked her; and every time that her father reproached her for some +deed deserving of punishment and threatened to cut off her hair, I +warrant you she suffered three times more than after a lash from the +whip, and would then be good for three weeks successively; so much so +that Juan Lanas, perceiving her amendment, would laugh under his +cloak, and when saying his say to his gossips would tell them that his +daughter, like the other saint of Sicily, would reach heaven by her +hair.</p> + +<p>Having read so far, you must now know that Juan Lanas, the blind man, +with the change of <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>district and dwelling did not change his judgment +and if he was crack-brained at San Garcia, he remained crack-brained +at Toledo, consuming in this resort his money upon worthless drugs and +quacks which did not cure his blindness and impoverished him more and +more every day, so that if his daughter had not been so dexterous with +her fingers in making and broidering garments of linen, wool, and +silk, I promise you that this miserable Juan would have had to go for +more than four Sundays without a clean shirt to put on or a mouthful +to eat, unless he had begged it from door to door.</p> + +<p>The years passed by to find Maria every day more beautiful, and her +father every day more blind and more desirous to see, until his +affliction and trouble took such forcible possession of his breast and +mind, that Maria saw as clear as daylight that if her father did not +recover his sight, he would die of grief. Maria thereupon straightway +took her father and led him to the house of an Arabian physician of +great learning who dwelt at Toledo, and told the Moor to see if there +were any cure for the old man's sight. The Arabian examined and +touched Juan, and made this and that experiment with him, and +everything prospered, in that the physician swore great oaths by the +heel-bone of Mohammed that there was a complete certainty of curing +Juan and making him to see his daughter again, if only he, the +physician, were paid for the cure with five hundred <i>maravedis</i> all in +gold. A sad termination for such a welcome beginning, for the two +unhappy <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>creatures, Juan and Maria, had neither <i>maravedi</i> nor +<i>cuarto</i> in the money box! So they went thence all downcast, and Maria +never ceased praying to his Holiness Saint John and his Holiness Saint +James (the patron saint of Spain) to repair to their assistance in +this sad predicament.</p> + +<p>"In what way," conjectured she inwardly, "in what way can I raise five +hundred <i>maravedis</i> to be quits with the Moor who will give back his +sight to my poor old father? All! I have it. I am a pretty maid, and +suitors innumerable, commoners and nobles, pay their addresses and +compliments to me. But all are trifling youths who only care for +love-making and who seek light o' loves rather than spouses according +to the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember, notwithstanding, that +opposite our house lives the sword-cutler, Master Palomo, who is +always looking at me and never speaks to me, and the Virgin assist me, +he appears a man of very good condition for a husband; but what +maiden, unless she were cross-eyed, or hunch-backed, could like a man +with such a flat nose, with that skin the color of a ripe date, with +those eyes like a dead calf's, and with those huge hands, which are +more like the paws of a wild beast that the belongings of a person who +with them should softly caress the woman whom Destiny bestows upon him +for a companion? 'Tis said that he is no drunkard, nor cudgeler, nor +dallier with women, nor a liar, and that he is besides possessed of +much property and very rich. Pity 'tis that one who is so ugly and +stiff-necked should unite such parts."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>Thus turning the matter over and over in her mind, Maria together +with Juan reached their home, where was awaiting them an esquire in a +long mourning robe, who told Maria that the aunt of the mayor of the +city had died in an honest estate and in the flower of her age, for +she had not yet completed her seventy years, and that the obsequies of +this sexagenarian damsel were to be performed the following day, on +which occasion her coffin would be carried to the church by maidens, +and he was come to ask Maria if she would please to be one of the +bearers of the dead woman, for which she would receive a white robe, +and to eat, and ducat, and thanks into the bargain.</p> + +<p>Maria, since she was a well-brought-up maid, replied that if it seemed +well to her father, it would also seem well to her.</p> + +<p>Juan accepted, and Maria was rejoiced to be able to make a display of +her hair, for it is well known that the maidens who bear one another +to the grave walk with disheveled locks. And when on the morrow the +tiring-women of the mayoress arrayed Maria in a robe white as the +driven snow and fine as the skin of an onion; and when they girt her +slender waist with a sash of crimson silk, the ends of which hung down +to the broad hem of the skirt; and when they crowned her smooth and +white forehead with a wreath of white flowers, I warrant you that, +what with the robe and the sash and the wreath, and the beautiful +streaming hair and her lovely countenance and gracious mien, she +seemed no female <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>formed of flesh and blood, but a superhuman creature +or blessed resident of those shining circles in which dwell the +celestial hierarchies. The mayor and the other mourners stepped forth +to see her, and all unceasingly praised God, who was pleased to +perform such miracles for the consolation and solace of those living +in this world.</p> + +<p>And there in a corner of the hall, motionless like a heap of broken +stones, stood one of the mutes with the hood of his long cloak +covering his head, so that nothing could be seen but his eyes, the +which he kept fixed on the fair damsel. The latter modestly lowered +her eyes to the ground with her head a little bent and her cheeks red +for bashfulness, although it pleased her no little to hear the praises +of her beauty. At this moment a screen was pushed aside, and there +began to appear a huge bulk of petticoats, which was nothing less than +the person of the mayoress, for she was with child and drawing near to +her time. And when she saw Maria, she started, opened her eyes a +hand's-breadth wide, bit her lips, and called hurriedly for her +husband. They stepped aside for a good while, and then hied them +thence, and when they returned the mutes and maidens had all gone.</p> + +<p>While they were burying the defunct lady I must tell you, curious +readers, that the mayor and mayoress had been married for many years +without having any children, and they longed for them like the +countryman for rain in the month of May, and at last her hour of bliss +came to the mayoress, to the great content of <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>her husband. Now, it +was whispered that the said lady had always been somewhat capricious; +judge for yourselves what she would be now in the time of her +pregnancy! And as she was already on the way to fifty, she was more +than mediocrely bald and hairless, and on these very same days had +commissioned a woman barber, who lived in the odor of witchcraft, to +prepare for her some false hair, but it was not to be that of a dead +woman, for the mayoress said very sensibly that if the hair belonged +to a dead woman who rejoiced in supreme glory, or was suffering for +her sins in purgatory, it would be profanation to wear any pledge of +theirs, and if they were in hell, it was a terrible thing to wear on +one's person relics of one of the damned. And when the mayoress saw +the abundant locks of Maria, she coveted them for herself, and it was +for this reason that she called to the mayor to speak to her in +private and besought him eagerly to persuade Mario to allow herself to +be shorn upon the return from the burial.</p> + +<p>"I warn you," said the mayor, "that you are desirous of entering upon +a very knotty bargain, for the disheveled girl idolizes her hair in +such wise that she would sooner lose a finger than suffer one of her +tresses to be cut off."</p> + +<p>"I warn you," replied the mayoress, "that if on this very day the head +of this young girl is not shorn smooth beneath my hand as a melon, the +child to which I am about to give birth will have a head of hair on +its face, and <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>if it happens to be a female, look you, a pretty +daughter is in store for you!"</p> + +<p>"But bethink yourself that Maria will ask, who knows, a good few +crowns for this shaving."</p> + +<p>"Bethink yourself that if not, your heir or heiress, begotten after +many years' marriage, will come amiss; and bear in mind, by the way, +that we are not so young as to hope to replace this by another."</p> + +<p>Upon this she turned her back to the mayor, and went to her apartment +crying out: "I want the hair, I must have the hair, and if I do not +get the hair, by my halidom I shall never become a mother."</p> + +<p>In the meantime the funeral had taken place without any novelty to +mention, excepting that if in the streets any loose fellow in the +crowd assayed to annoy the fair Maria, the hooded mute, of whom we +made mention before, quickly drew from beneath his cloak a strap, with +which he gave a lash to the insolent rogue without addressing one word +to him, and then walked straight on as if nothing had happened. When +all the mourners returned, the mayor seized hold of Maria's hand and +said to her:</p> + +<p>"And now, fair maid, let us withdraw for a little while into this +other apartment," and thus talking whilst in motion he brought her +into his wife's private tiring-room, and sat himself down in a chair +and bent his head and stroked his beard with the mien of one who is +studying what beginning to give his speech. Maria, a little foolish +and confused, remained standing in front of the mayor, and she also +humbly <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>lowered before him her eyes, black as the sloe; and to occupy +herself with something, gently fingered the ends of the sash, which +girded her waist and hung down over her skirt, not knowing what to +expect from the grave mien and long silence of the mayor, who, raising +his eyes and looking up at Maria, when he beheld her in so modest a +posture, devised thence a motive with which to begin, saying:</p> + +<p>"Forsooth, Maria, so modest and sanctimonious is thy bearing, that it +is easy to see thou art preparing thyself to become a black-wimpled +nun. And if it be so, as I presume it to be, I now offer of my own +accord to dispose of thy entry into the cloisters without any dowry, +on the condition that thou dost give me something that thou hast on +thy head, and which then will not be necessary for thee."</p> + +<p>"Nay, beshrew me, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, "for I durst not think +that the Lord calls upon me to take that step, for then my poor father +would remain in the world without the staff of his old age."</p> + +<p>"Then, now, I desire to give thee some wise counsel, maid Maria. Thou +dost gain thy bread with great fatigue. Thou shouldst make use of thy +time as much as is possible. Now one of thy neighbors hath told me +that in the dressing of thy hair thou dost waste every day more than +an hour. It would be better far if thou didst spend this hour on thy +work rather than in the dressing and braiding which thou dost to thy +hair."</p> + +<p>"That is true, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, turning as red as a +carnation, "but, look you, <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>it is not my fault if I have a wealth of +tresses, the combing and plaiting of which necessitate so long a time +every morning."</p> + +<p>"I tell thee it is thy fault," retorted the mayor, "for if thou didst +cut off this mane, thou wouldst save thyself all this combing and +plaiting, and thus wouldst have more time for work, and so gain more +money, and wouldst also give no occasion to people to call thee vain. +They even say that the devil will some day carry thee off by thy hair. +Nay, do not be distressed, for I already perceive the tears gathering +in thine eyes, for thou hast them indeed very ready at hand; I +admonish thee for thine own good without any self-interest. Cut thy +hair off, shear thyself, shave thyself, good Maria, and to allay the +bitterness of the shearing, I will give fifty <i>maravedis</i>, always on +condition that thou dost hand me over the hair."</p> + +<p>When Maria at first heard this offer of so reasonable a sum for this +her hair, it seemed to her a jest of the mayor's, and she smiled right +sweetly while she dried her tears, repeating:</p> + +<p>"You will give me fifty <i>maravedis</i> if I shave myself?"</p> + +<p>Now it appeared to the mayor (who, it is said, was not gifted with all +the prudence of Ulysses) that the smile signified that the maid was +not satisfied with so small a price, and he added:</p> + +<p>"If thou wilt not be content with fifty <i>maravedis</i>, I will give thee +a hundred."</p> + +<p>Then Maria saw some hangings of the apartment moving in front of her, +and perceiving a <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>bulky protuberance, she immediately divined that the +mayoress was hiding behind there, and that the protuberance was caused +by her portly form. Now she discovered the mayor's design, and that it +was probably a caprice of his spouse, and she made a vow not to suffer +herself to be shorn unless she acquired by these means the five +hundred <i>maravedis</i> needful to pay the Arabian physician who would +give her father back his eyesight.</p> + +<p>Then the mayor raised his price from a hundred <i>maravedis</i> to a +hundred and fifty, and afterwards to two hundred, and Maria continued +her sweet smiling, shaking of the head, and gestures, and every time +that the mayor bid higher and Maria feigned to be reluctant, she +almost hoped that the mayor would withdraw from his proposition, for +the great grief it caused her to despoil herself of that precious +ornament, notwithstanding that my means of it she might gain her +father's health. Finally the mayor, anxious to conclude the treaty, +for he saw the stirring of the curtains, and knew by them the anxiety +and state of mind of the listener, closed by saying:</p> + +<p>"Go to, hussy, I will give thee five hundred <i>maravedis</i>. See, once +and for all, if thou canst agree on these terms."</p> + +<p>"Be it so," replied Maria, sighing as if her soul would flee from her +flesh with these words—"be it so, so long that nobody doth know that +I remain bald."</p> + +<p>"I will give my word for it," said the mayoress, stepping from behind +the curtains with a <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>pair of sharp shears in her hands and a wrapper +over her arm.</p> + +<p>When Maria saw the scissors she turned as yellow as wax, and when they +told her to sit down on the sacrificial chair, she felt herself grow +faint and had to ask for a drink of water; and when they tied the +wrapper round her throat it is related that she would have immediately +torn it asunder if her courage had not failed her. And when at the +first movement of the shears she felt the cold iron against her skull, +I tell you it seemed to her as if they were piercing her heart with a +bright dagger. It is possible that she did not keep her head still for +a moment while this tonsuring was taking place; she moved it in spite +of herself, now to one side, now to another, to flee from the clipping +scissors, of which the rude cuts and the creaking axis wounded her +ears. Her posture and movements, however, were of no avail to the poor +shorn maiden, and the pertinacious shearer, with the anxiety and +covetousness of a pregnant woman satisfying a caprice, seized the hair +well, or ill, by handfuls, and went on bravely clipping, and the locks +fell on to the white wrapper, slipping down thence till they reached +the ground.</p> + +<p>At last the business came to an end, and the mayoress, who was beside +herself with joy, caressingly passed the palm of her hand again and +again over the maid's bald head from the front to the back, saying:</p> + +<p>"By my mother's soul, I have shorn you so regularly and close to the +root that the most <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>skilful barber could not have shorn you better. +Get up and braid the hair while my husband goes to get the money and I +your clothes, so that you can leave the house without anyone +perceiving it."</p> + +<p>The mayor and mayoress went out of the room, and Maria, as soon as she +found herself alone, went to look at herself in a mirror that hung +there; and when she saw herself bald she lost the patience she had had +until then, and groaned with rage and struck herself, and even tried +to wrench off her ears, which appeared to her now outrageously large, +although they were not so in reality. She stamped upon her hair and +cursed herself for having ever consented to lose it, without +remembering her father, and just as if she had no father at all. But +as it is a quality of human nature to accept what cannot be altered, +poor angry Maria calmed down little by little, and she picked up the +hair from the ground and bound it together and braided it into great +ropes, not without kissing it and lamenting over it many times.</p> + +<p>The mayor and the mayoress returned, he with the money and she with +the every-day clothes of Maria, who undressed and folded her white +robe in a kerchief, put on her old gown, hid herself with her shawl to +the eyes, and walked, moaning, to the house of the Moor, without +noticing that the man with the hood over his head was following behind +her, and that when she, in a moment of forgetfulness, lowered her +shawl through the habit she had of displaying her tresses, her bald +head could be plainly seen. The Moor received the five <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>hundred +<i>maravedis</i> with that good-will with which money is always received, +and told Maria to bring Juan Lanas to his house to stay there so long +as there was any risk in the cure. Maria went to fetch the old man, +and kept silence as to her shorn head so as not to grieve him, and +whilst Juan remained the physician's guest, Maria durst not leave her +home except after nightfall, and then well enveloped. This, however, +did not hinder her being followed by the muffled-up man.</p> + +<p>One evening the Moor told her in secret that the next morning he would +remove the bandages from Juan's eyes. Maria went to bed that night +with great rejoicing, but thought to herself that when her father saw +her (which would be with no little pleasure) he would be pleased three +or four times more if he could see her with the pretty head-dress +which she used to wear in her native town. Amidst such cavillation she +donned the next day her best petticoat and ribbons to his to the +Arabian's house; and while she was sitting down to shoe herself she of +a sudden felt something like a hood closing over her head, and, +turning round, she saw behind her the muffled-up man of before, who, +throwing aside his cloak, discovered himself to be the sword-cutler, +Master Palomo, who, without speaking, presented Maria with a little +Venetian mirror, in which she looked and saw herself with her own hair +and garb in such wise that she wondered for a good time if it were not +a dream that the mayoress had shorn her.</p> + +<p>The fact was that Master Palomo was a great <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>crony of the old woman +barber, and had seen in her house Maria's tresses on the very same +afternoon of the morning in which he saw Maria was bald, and keeping +silence upon the matter, had wheedled the old woman into keeping +Maria's hair for him, and dressing for the mayoress some other hair of +the same hue which the crone had from a dead woman—a bargain by which +the crafty old dame acquired many a bright crown. And the story +relates that as soon as Maria regained her much lamented and +sighed-for hair by the hands of the gallant sword-cutler, the master +appeared to her much less ugly than before. I do not know if it tells +that from that moment she began to look on him with more favorable +eyes, but i' sooth it is a fact that upon his asking her to accept his +escort to the Moor's house, she gave her assent, and the two set out +hand in hand, the maiden holding her head up free from mufflers. As +they both entered the physician's apartment her father threw himself +into Maria's arms, crying:</p> + +<p>"Glory to God, I see thee now, my beloved daughter. How tall and +beautiful thou art grown! Verily, it is worth while to become blind +for five years to see one's daughter matured thus! Now that I see +daylight again, it is only right that I should no longer be a burden +to thee. I shall work for myself, for as for thee it is already time +for thee to marry."</p> + +<p>"For this very purpose am I come," broke in at this opportune moment +the silent sword-cutler; "I, as you will have already recognized <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>by +my voice, am your neighbor, Master Palomo. I love Maria, and ask you +for her hand."</p> + +<p>"Lack-a-day, master, but your exterior is not very prepossessing. +Howbeit, if Maria doth accept you, I am content."</p> + +<p>"I," replied Maria, wholly abashed, and smoothing the false hair +(which then weighed upon her head and heart like a burden of five +hundred weight)—"I, so may God enlighten me, for I durst not venture +to reply."</p> + +<p>Palomo took her right hand without saying anything, and as he did so +Maria looked at the master's wrists, and observed the wristbands of +his shirt, neatly embroidered, and with some suspicion and beating of +her heart said to him:</p> + +<p>"If you wish to please me, good neighbor, tell me by what seamstress +is this work?"</p> + +<p>"It is the work," replied the master, jocularly, "the work of a pretty +maiden who for five years has toiled for my person, albeit she hath +not known it till now."</p> + +<p>"Now I perceive," said Maria, "how that all the women who have come to +give me linen to sew and embroider were sent by you, and that is why +they paid me more than is customary."</p> + +<p>The master did not reply, but he smiled and held out his arms to +Maria. Maria threw herself into them, embracing him very caressingly; +and Juan himself said to the two:</p> + +<p>"In good sooth, you are made one for the other."</p> + +<p>"By my troth, my beloved one," continued the sword-cutler after a +while, "if my countenance had only been more pleasing, I should not +have been silent towards you for so many <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>long days, nor would I have +been content with, gazing at you from afar. I should have spoken to +you, you would have made me the confidant of your troubles, and I +would have given you the five hundred <i>maravedis</i> for the cure of your +good father."</p> + +<p>And whispering softly into her ear, he added: "And then you would not +have passed that evil moment under the hands of the mayoress. But if +you fear that she may break the promise she made to you to keep +silence as to your cropped head, let us, if it please you, set out for +Seville, where nobody knows you, and thus—"</p> + +<p>"No more," exclaimed Maria, resolutely throwing on the ground the +hair, which Juan picked up all astonished. "Send this hair to the +mayoress, since it was for this and not for that of the dead woman +that she paid so dearly. For I, to cure myself of my vanity, now make +a vow, with your good permission, to go shorn all my life. Such +artificial adornments are little befitting to the wives of honest +burghers."</p> + +<p>"But rely upon it," replied the master-cutler, "that as soon as it is +known that you have no hair, the girls of the city, envious of your +beauty, will give you the nickname of <i>Mariquita the Bald</i>!"</p> + +<p>"They may do so," replied Maria, "and that they may see that I do not +care a fig for this or any other nickname, I swear to you that from +this day forth I will not suffer anybody to call me by another name +than <i>Mariquita the Bald</i>."</p> + +<p>This was the event that rendered so famous throughout all Castile the +beautiful daughter <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>of good Juan Lanas, who in effect married Master +Palomo, and became one of the most honorable and prolific women of the +most illustrious city of Toledo.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LOVE_OF_CLOTILDE" id="THE_LOVE_OF_CLOTILDE"></a>THE LOVE OF CLOTILDE</h2> + +<div class="center"><b><span class="smcap">Armando Palacio Valdés</span></b></div> + + +<p>In the dressing-room of Clotilde, leading actress of one of the most +important theaters in the capital, there gathered every night about +half a dozen of her male friends. The reception lasted almost always +about as long as the performances; but it included a number of +parentheses. Whenever the actress, was obliged to change her costume +she would turn towards her visitors with a bewitching smile and +beseeching eyes:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, will you withdraw for one little moment?—not more than +one little moment."</p> + +<p>Thereupon they would all transfer themselves to the ante-room and +remain there patiently waiting. No, I am mistaken, not quite all, +because the youngest of them, a third year student in the School of +Medicine, would avail himself of the chance to take a turn in the +wings to stretch his legs and snatch a fugitive kiss or so. At all +events, the majority remained, either seated or pacing up and down, +until the moment when Clotilde would re-open her door and, putting out +her head, decked as queen or peasant girl, according to the part she +was playing, would call out:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>"Now you may come back, gentlemen. Have I been very long?"</p> + +<p>Don Jerónimo always lingered. He was the last to withdraw grumbling +and the first to return to the dressing-room. He was never able to +reconcile himself to that modest custom. And although he never allowed +himself to say so openly, yet in the depths of his secret thoughts he +regarded it as a lack of courtesy that he should be ejected from his +seat, merely because the silly child must change her dress,—he, who +for thirty years had passed his life behind the scenes and had been on +intimate terms with every actor and actress, ancient and modern!</p> + +<p>He was fifty-four years of age and had been attached to the Ministry +of Foreign Affairs ever since he was four-and-twenty. Each successive +government had regarded him as one of the indispensable wheels in the +machinery of colonial administration. Furthermore, he was a bachelor +and living at the mercy of his landlady. It was said that in his youth +he once wrote a play which won him nothing but hisses and free entry +for life behind the scenes of the theaters. Whether resigned or not to +the verdict of the public, he ceased to write plays and assumed +instead the nobler rôle of patron to unrecognized authors and artists +and to ruined managers.</p> + +<p>Any youth from the provinces who arrived in Madrid with a drama in his +pocket could take no surer road to seeing it produced than that which +led to the home of Don Jerónimo. One and all, he received them with +open arms, <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>the good and the bad alike. There is no denying that, +since he was rather brusque in his ways, he never spared the young +authors who asked his advice and read him their productions, but +criticized vigorously, even to the verge of insult: "This whole +episode is sheer nonsense; spill your ink-well on it!" "Why, look +here, for the love of heaven! How do you suppose that a man who is on +the point of committing murder is going to stand there for sixteen +seconds, without drawing his breath?" "Lord, what tommyrot! Platonic +love for a woman of that class! You must have tumbled out of the nest +unfledged, my lad!"</p> + +<p>But anyone possessed of a little tact refused to take offense, but +went calmly on and ended by intrusting his manuscript to the hands of +Don Jerónimo. And he could rest assured that his drama would be +produced. The veteran of the greenrooms exercised a strong influence, +akin to intimidation, over managers and actors alike; when he was +displeased, he gave his tongue free rein; if a play had been hissed, +he would protest, boiling with rage, against the public verdict, and +would continue to support the author more stanchly than ever. If on +the contrary it scored a hit, he merely kept silent and smiled +ecstatically, but never sought out the successful author in order to +congratulate him. And if the latter should complain of his +indifference, his answer was:</p> + +<p>"Now that you have shown that you can use your wings, will you please, +my friend, will you please leave me free to succor some other poor +fellow?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>His private life offered little of special interest. Every night, +upon leaving the theater, he betook himself to the <i>Café Habanero</i>, +where he habitually consumed a beefsteak, together with a small +measure of beer. And, according to a certain friend, who had watched +him repeatedly, he always managed his repast so artfully as to finish, +at one and the same time, the last mouthful of meat, the last fragment +of bread, and the last draught of beer.</p> + +<p>On this particular night the little gathering was unwontedly animated. +The actress's friends indulged more freely than usual in gossip and +laughter. Don Jerónimo, muffled closely in his cape (one of his +privileges), lounging at ease in the big corner chair, and with his +inevitable cigar between his teeth (another special privilege), was +giving utterance to rare and racy stories, which from time to time +caused his hearers to cast a glance in the direction of Clotilde and +brought a slightly heightened color to the latter's cheeks.</p> + +<p>Don Jerónimo himself took no notice of this; he had first known her as +such a mere child that he considered he had the right to dispense with +certain courtesies that are due to ladies,—assuming that in the whole +course of his life he had ever shown them to any woman, which is very +doubtful. He had met her first as a mere child and had opened the way +for her to the stage. At the time that he ran across her, she was +living wretchedly and trying to learn the art of making artificial +flowers. Today, thanks to her talent, she earned enough to keep her +mother and sisters in comfort.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>Clotilde's attraction lay in her charm of manner rather than her +beauty. Her complexion was olive, her eyes large and black, the best +of all her features; her mouth somewhat big, but with bright red lips +and admirably even teeth. Tonight she was costumed as a lady of the +time of Louis XV, with powdered hair, which was marvelously becoming +to her. She took almost no part in the conversation, but seemed +satisfied to be merely a listener, constantly turning her serene gaze +from one speaker to another, and often answering only with a smile +when they addressed her.</p> + +<p>All at once there came the voice of the call-boy:</p> + +<p>"Señorita Clotilde, if you please—"</p> + +<p>"Coming," she answered, rising.</p> + +<p>She crossed over to the mirror, gave a few final touches to her brows +and lashes with a pencil, adjusted with somewhat nervous fingers the +coils of her hair, the cross of brilliants which she wore at her +throat, and the folds of her dress. Her friends became for the moment +silent and abstractedly watched these last preparations.</p> + +<p>"Good-by for the present, gentlemen." And she left the dressing-room, +followed by her maid, carefully bearing her train, a magnificent train +of cream-colored satin.</p> + +<p>"She grows lovelier every day, Clotilde does," said the medical +student, allowing an imperceptible sigh to escape him.</p> + +<p>Don Jerónimo took an enormous pull at his cigar, and instantly became +enveloped in a cloud of smoke. For this reason no one <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>observed the +smile of triumph with which he received the medical student's remark.</p> + +<p>"I agree with you that she grows prettier every day," said another of +the visitors. "But it seems to me that her disposition has been +undergoing a big change for some time back. You, my boy, have not +known her as long as we have. She used to be a fascinating talker, so +merry, so full of spirits! No one could ever remain out of temper in +her company. But now I find her grave and sad almost all the time."</p> + +<p>"It's a fact that I have wondered at the melancholy look in her eyes."</p> + +<p>Don Jerónimo took another enormous pull at his cigar. No one saw the +swift flare of anger that passed over his face.</p> + +<p>"Changes like that, my boy, have only one cause, and that is love."</p> + +<p>"Was she engaged?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely,—Don Jerónimo knows the story well."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I am going to tell it to you," said the one referred to, +from the depths of his cloak. "Though you may believe me that it is no +pleasant task to relate such follies. But it concerns a girl whom we +all of us love, and whatever affects her ought to interest us.</p> + +<p>"Some three years ago a young man, faultlessly dressed and with the +manuscript of a play under his arm, called upon the director of this +theater. Now there is nothing in the world more impressive and +awe-inspiring than a well-dressed young man who carries the manuscript +of a play under his arm. The director did his <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>best to dodge him, and +held him off with a number of adroit moves; but he was finally +cornered, all the same. In other words, the young man invited him to +breakfast one day, enticing him with the seductive prospect of several +dozen oysters, washed down with abundant Sauterne, and for dessert he +shot off his play at close range.</p> + +<p>"As it turned out, the play was no good. Pepe did what you know one +does in such cases: he expressed deep admiration for the +versification, he said 'bravo!' over certain obscurely phrased +thoughts, and finally he recommended a few changes in the second act, +after which the work would be unexceptionable.</p> + +<p>"The unwary poet returned home greatly pleased, and set to work +zealously upon the revision. At the end of a fortnight he returned for +another interview with Pepe; this time the latter found the first act +somewhat slow, and advised him at any cost to put more action into it +and make it somewhat shorter. It took the poet a month to rewrite the +first act. When he once more presented himself, the director, while +expressing great admiration for the excellence of the verse and for +some of the ideas, manifested some doubt as to whether the play was +<i>actable</i>. That it was <i>literary</i>, he had none whatever; on the +contrary, it seemed to him that from this point of view it compared +favorably with the best of Ayala's plays,—but actable, really +actable, ah! that was another matter!"</p> + +<p>"What is the difference, Don Jerónimo? I don't understand."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>"Then I will explain, my boy. We, who are behind the scenes, mean by +<i>actable</i> a good play, and by <i>literary</i> a bad one."</p> + +<p>"I see!"</p> + +<p>"After expressing these doubts, the manager concluded by recommending +certain additional alterations in the third act.</p> + +<p>"At last the poet understood,—a really marvelous occurrence, because +poets, who understand everything else and can tell you why the condor +flies so high, who soar to the skies and descend into the abyss and +penetrate the secret thoughts of all created things, are not capable +of realizing that there are times when their works do not please those +who hear them. Our young man, whom we will call Inocencio, received +back his manuscript somewhat peevishly, and for a while nothing +further was heard of him. But at last, doubtless after a good deal of +profound meditation, he presented himself on a certain morning at the +home of Clotilde. I hardly need tell you that he carried his +manuscript under his arm.</p> + +<p>"He waited patiently in the parlor while our young friend completed +her toilet, and when at last she made her appearance, she saw before +her a blushing and confused young man, who nevertheless was +pleasant-mannered and fashionably dressed, and who besought with +stammering lips that she would do him the favor of listening while he +read his play. Women, you must know, find a singular pleasure in +playing the rôle of patroness, especially in regard to young men of +pleasant manners and fashionable dress. So that it is not at all +surprising <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>that Clotilde listened patiently to the play and even +pronounced it acceptable.</p> + +<p>"The young man intrusted himself wholly to her guidance, deposited his +manuscript in her pretty hands, as though it were a new-born child, +and she received it like a doting mother, took it under her +protection, and promised to watch over its precious existence and +introduce it to the world. The young man declared that such an +intention was worthy of the noble heart whose fame had already reached +his ears. Clotilde replied that it was no kindness on her part to work +to have the play produced, but only an act of justice. The young man +said that this idea was exceedingly flattering, because Clotilde's +great talent and the accuracy of her judgments were well known to +everyone, but that he dared not build upon such an illusion. Clotilde +declared that there were many unmerited reputations in the world, and +one of them was hers, but that on this occasion she felt that she was +on firm ground.</p> + +<p>"The young man replied that when the river roars the water toils, and +that when the whole world unites in admiring not only the exceptional +beauty and artistic inspiration of a certain person, but also her +splendid genius and brilliant intellect, it was necessary to bow one's +head. Clotilde said that on this occasion she refused to bow hers, +because she was quite convinced that the world was greatly mistaken +regarding what it called her talent, which was nothing more nor less +than pure instinct. The young man cried out to heaven against such +mystification, for which there was absolutely <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>no excuse. Then, +promptly calming down, he declared himself profoundly moved by the +modesty of his patroness, and swore by all the saints in heaven that +he never had met her equal,—with the result that the manuscript was +momentarily gaining ground in the heart of our sympathetic friend, and +that the young man, overwhelmed with emotion, took his leave of her +until the following day.</p> + +<p>"On the following day, Clotilde called upon the manager, and by +threatening to break her contract, forced from him a promise to +produce Inocencio's play as soon as possible. That same afternoon, the +poet expressed his thanks to his patroness and promptly took her into +his confidence. He belonged to a distinguished provincial family, +although without great financial resources. It was in the hope of +bettering them that he had come to Madrid, relying solely upon his +genius. In his native town they said that he had talent, and that if +the verses which he had contributed to the <i>Tagus Echo</i> had been +published in Madrid, he would be talked of as a second Nuñez de Arce y +Grilo. He did not know whether that was so; but he felt that his heart +was full of noble sentiments, and he loved the theater better than the +apple of his eye. Would he succeed in being an Ayala or a Tamayo? +Would he be rejected by the public? It was an insoluble mystery to +him.</p> + +<p>"During this interview, Clotilde became convinced of two very +important things: namely, that Inocencio possessed a talent so great +that his head could scarcely hold it, and secondly, that there was no +one else in all Madrid who <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>could wear so conspicuous a necktie with +such charming effect. I need not tell you that their confidential +interviews increased in frequency, and that consequently Clotilde came +day by day more completely under the fascinating influence of that +supernatural necktie. In the end, she yielded herself vanquished, and +surrendered herself to it, bound hand and foot. The necktie deigned to +raise her from the ground and grant her the favor of its affection."</p> + +<p>"What about a necktie?" asked one of the company, who had been +nodding.</p> + +<p>Don Jerónimo took an immense, an infernal pull at his cigar, in +testimony of his annoyance, then proceeded with no further notice:</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile the rehearsals of Inocencio's play had begun. It was +called, if I am not mistaken, <i>Stooping to Conquer</i>,—excuse me, no, I +believe it was just the reverse, <i>Conquering to Stoop</i>. Well, at all +events, it contained a participle and an infinitive. Before long I +became aware that lover-like relations had been established between +our fair friend and the author, and since, as a matter of fact, even +if Inocencio was a bad poet, as Pepe insisted, he seemed like a good +lad, I was very glad it had happened and I helped it along as much as +I could. Clotilde confided in me, and declared that she was +desperately in love; that her ambitions no longer had anything to do +with the art of the stage, which seemed to her an unbearable slavery; +that her ideal was to live tranquilly, even if it were in a garret, +united to the man whom she adored; that woman was born to be the +guardian angel of the fireside, and not to divert the <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>public, and +that she herself would rather be queen of a humble little apartment +illuminated with love, than to receive all the applause in the world. +In short, gentlemen, our young friend was living in the midst of an +idyllic dream.</p> + +<p>"Inocencio was, to all appearance, no less in love than she. I +frequently encountered them walking through the unfrequented by-paths +of the Retiro, at a respectable distance from her mother, who lingered +opportunely to examine the first opening buds of flowers or some +curious insect. Mothers, at this critical period of courtship, are +under an obligation to be admirers of the works of nature. The young +pair of turtle-doves would pause when they caught sight of me and +greet me blushingly. I cannot conceal from you that, however much I +felt the loss to art, I was delighted that Clotilde was going to be +married. A woman always needs the protection of a man. And there is no +question that so far as outward appearance went, they were worthy of +one another. Inocencio certainly was a most attractive young fellow.</p> + +<p>"At the theater they talked of nothing else than of this wedding, +which was still in the bud. Everybody was delighted, because Clotilde +is the only actress, since the beginning of the world, who took it +into her head to attempt what until now was regarded as impossible, to +make herself beloved by her companions.</p> + +<p>"I observed, nevertheless,—for you know that I am an observant +person: it is the only quality<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a> that I possess, that of observation, a +thing to which the authors of today attach no importance. Today, in +the drama, everything is so much dried leaves, a lot of moonshine, +which, they let filter down through the foliage of the trees, a lot of +description of dawn and twilight, and a lot of other similar +pastry-shop stuff. That's all there is to it! When any fledgling +author comes to me with nonsense of that sort, I say to him: 'Get down +to the facts! Get down to the facts!' The facts are the drama, which +doesn't exist in the great part of the above-mentioned."</p> + +<p>"Aren't you exciting yourself, Don Jerónimo?"</p> + +<p>"Well, as I was telling you, I observed that as the rehearsals +progressed the ascendency of Inocencio over our young friend +increased. The tone in which he addressed her was no longer the humble +and courteous tone of earlier days; he corrected her frequently in her +manner of delivery, he dictated the attitudes and gestures which she +should adopt, and sometimes, when the actress did not quite understand +his wishes, he allowed himself to address her publicly in rather +severe terms, and the way he looked at her was severer still. Our poet +was already thundering and lightning like a true lord and master.</p> + +<p>"Clotilde accepted it with good grace. She, who had always been so +haughty, even towards the most distinguished authors, stretched out +and shrank back like soft wax in the hands of that insignificant +jackanapes. You ought to have seen the humility with which she +accepted his suggestions, and the distress which his <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>censures caused +her. All the time that the rehearsal lasted she kept her eyes steadily +fixed upon him, watching like a submissive slave to catch the wishes +of her master. The poet, lolling at ease in an arm-chair, with a +brazier of hot coals before him, directed the action in as dictatorial +a manner as either Gracia Gutierrez or Ayala could have done. A mere +glance from him sufficed to make Clotilde flush crimson or turn pale. +The other actors made no protest, out of consideration for her. When +she had finished her scene she came eagerly to take her seat beside +her betrothed, who sometimes deigned to welcome her with a haughty +smile, and at other times with an Olympian indifference. I, meanwhile, +looked on, scandalized.</p> + +<p>"On one occasion I came upon them from behind, and overheard what they +were saying. Clotilde was speaking, and hotly maintaining that +Inocencio's <i>Stooping to Conquer</i> or <i>Conquering to Stoop</i> was better +than <i>A New Drama</i>. The young man protested feebly. On another +occasion they were speaking of their future union. Clotilde was +picturing in impassioned phrases the nook to which they would go to +hide their happiness; some lofty spot on the hills of Salamanca, a +dear little nest, bathed in sunlight, where Inocencio could work in +his private study, writing plays, while she sat by his side and +embroidered in absolute silence. When he was tired they could talk for +a while, to let him rest, and then she would give him a kiss and go +back again to her work. In the evening they would go out, arm in arm, +to take <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>a short walk, and then home again. But no more of the +theater; she abhorred it with all her soul. In the spring they would +go every morning to take a walk in the Retiro and take chocolate under +the trees; in the summer they would spend a month or two in +Inocencio's birthplace, so as to bring back from the country a supply +of good color and health for the coming winter.</p> + +<p>"The description of this tender idyl, which, even if I am a confirmed +bachelor, set my heart beating within my breast, produced no other +effect upon the new author than an insolent somnolence which would not +disappear until he suddenly raised his imperious voice to admonish +some one of the actors.</p> + +<p>"At last the opening night arrived. We were all anxious to see the +result. The prevailing opinion was that the play offered little +novelty; but since Clotilde had staked her whole soul upon the +outcome, a big success was predicted. At the dress rehearsal our young +friend had achieved genuine prodigies. There was a moment when the few +of us whom curiosity had brought to witness it, rose to our feet +electrified, convulsed, making a most unseemly outcry. You have no +conception how marvelously she rendered her part. Then and there, all +of a sudden, an idea entered my head. Recalling all my observations of +Clotilde's love affair, I felt convinced, in view of the evidence, +that Inocencio had had no other purpose in winning her love than to +assure an exceptional interpretation of the leading <i>rôle</i> of his +play, and a flattering outcome of his venture. I <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>decided not to +communicate my suspicions to anyone. I kept silent and hoped, but +there is no doubt that from that time on the young man was decidedly +out of favor with me.</p> + +<p>"The noise which Inocencio's friends had been making in regard to the +theme of his play, the fact that Clotilde had chosen it for her +benefit performance, and the wide-spread rumor that the celebrated +actress was going to win a signal triumph in it, all worked together +to help the speculators to dispose of every seat in the house at +fabulous prices. I know a marquis who paid eleven <i>duros</i> for two +orchestra stalls. This room where we are now sitting was filled, just +as it is annually, with flowers and presents; it was impossible to +move about in the midst of such a conglomeration of porcelain, books +with costly bindings, ebony work-boxes, picture-frames, and no end of +other fancy trifles.</p> + +<p>"The audience room was unusually brilliant. The most resplendent +ladies, the men most distinguished in politics, literature, and +finance; in short, the <i>high life</i>, as the phrase goes, was all there. +But even more brilliant and more radiant was Inocencio himself; +radiant with glory and happiness, and graciously receiving the crowds +of visitors who came to see the presents, dictating orders to the +call-boys and scene-shifters regarding the proper setting of the +scene, and multiplying his smiles and hand-shakings to the point of +infinity. Clotilde also seemed more beautiful than ever, and her +expressive face revealed the tender emotion which possessed her, as +well as her deep anxiety to win laurels for her future husband.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>"The curtain arose and everyone hurried to occupy his seat. In the +wings there was no one save the author and three or four of his +friends. The opening scenes were received as usual with indifference; +the following ones with a little more cordiality; the versification +was fluent and polished, and, as you know, the public appreciates +sugar-coated phrases. At last the moment arrived for Clotilde's +entrance, and a faint murmur of curiosity and expectation ran through +the audience. She spoke her lines discreetly, but without much warmth; +it was easy to see that she was afraid. The curtain fell in a dead +silence.</p> + +<p>"Immediately the waiting-room and passage-way were filled by +Inocencio's friends, who came eagerly to tell him that this first +performance of his play was a great success,—but what was the matter +with Clotilde? She hardly put any movement into her part,—and she was +usually so much alive, so tremendously forceful! Our young friend +acknowledged that, as a matter of fact, she had felt badly scared, and +that this had hampered her seriously. The author, greatly alarmed for +the fate of his work, endeavored to persuade her that there was +nothing to be afraid of, that all she had to do was to be herself, and +that she was not to think of him at all while she spoke her lines.</p> + +<p>"'I can't help it,' insisted Clotilde, 'all the time that I am +speaking I keep thinking that you are the author, and imagining that +the play is not going to succeed, and it makes me so frightened.'</p> + +<p>"Inocencio was in despair; he tried entreaties, <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>advice, arguments, he +embraced her without caring who saw him; he tried to infuse courage +into her by appealing to her vanity as an artist; in short, he did +everything imaginable to save his play.</p> + +<p>"The second act began. Clotilde had a few pathetic scenes. In the +beginning there was a certain slight disturbance in the audience, and +this sufficed to disconcert her completely, and to make her acting +irremediably bad, worse than she had ever acted in her whole life. A +good deal of coughing was heard, and some loud murmurs of impatience. +At the end of that second act a few indiscreet friends tried to +applaud, but the audience drowned them out with an immense and +terrifying series of hisses. The author, who was standing by my side, +pale as death, relieved his feelings with a flood of coarse words, and +made his way to Pepe's room, which faces that of Clotilde, and where +his friends consoled him, casting the whole blame for the failure upon +her, and inflaming more and more the anger surging in his heart. +Meanwhile, our friend was utterly crushed and overcome, and +continually calling for her Inocencio. In order to spare her further +trouble, I told her that the author had accepted the situation +resignedly, and had left the theater to get a breath of air. The +unhappy girl bitterly blamed herself, taking the entire failure on her +own shoulders.</p> + +<p>"The curtain rose for the third act; and we all gathered anxiously at +the wings. Clotilde, by a powerful effort of will, showed herself at +first more self-possessed than in the previous acts, but the audience +was in a mood to have <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>some sport, and nothing could have made them +take the play seriously. When the public once scents a trail, it is +like a wild beast that smells blood; there is no way of heading it +off, and you have got to let it have its flesh at any cost. And there +is no doubt that on this occasion it gorged itself full. Coughs, +laughter, sneezes, stampings, hisses,—there was a little of +everything. Tears sprang to our poor friend's eyes, and she seemed +upon the point of fainting. When the curtain finally fell her eyes +sought on all sides for her lover, but he had disappeared. In her +dressing-room, where I followed her, she sobbed, groaned, gave way to +despair, called herself a fool, said that she was going to hire +herself out on some farm to tend the geese and more to the same +effect. It cost me some hard work to calm her down, but at last I +succeeded so that she sank into a sort of silent lethargy. In the +sorrow which her eyes revealed I saw that what tormented her horribly +was the absence of Inocencio.</p> + +<p>"The door of the room was suddenly flung open. The defeated poet made +his appearance; he was quite pale but apparently calm. Nevertheless, I +perceived at the first glance that his calmness was assumed, and that +the smile which contracted his lips closely resembled that of a +condemned man who wishes to die bravely.</p> + +<p>"A gleam of joy illuminated Clotilde's face. She rose swiftly and +flung her arms around his neck, saying in a broken voice:</p> + +<p>"'I have ruined you, my poor Inocencio, I have ruined you! How +generous you are! But <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>listen, I swear to you, by the memory of my +father, that I will atone for the humiliation you have just suffered.'</p> + +<p>"'There is no need for you to atone, my dear girl,' replied the poet, +in a soft tone under which a disdainful anger could be felt, 'my +family has not achieved its illustrious name through the intercession +of any actor. From this day henceforth I gladly renounce the theater +and all that is connected with it. Accordingly,—I wish you good-day.' +And, unclasping the arms that imprisoned his neck, and smiling +sarcastically, he retreated a few steps and took his leave. Clotilde +gazed at him in a stupor, then fell unconscious on the divan.</p> + +<p>"At the sight of her in such a state I felt my blood take fire, and I +followed the young man out. I overtook him near the stairs, and, +grasping him by the wrist, I said to him:</p> + +<p>"'A word with you. The first thing that a man has to be, before he can +be a poet, is a gentleman,—and that is something you are not. Your +play was hissed because it lacks the same thing that you lack,—and +that is a heart. Here, sir, is my card.'"</p> + +<p>"And did you not send him your seconds, Don Jerónimo?" inquired the +medical student.</p> + +<p>"Silence, silence!" exclaimed another of the group, "here is +Clotilde."</p> + +<p>And, in fact, the charming actress at that moment appeared in the +doorway, and her large and sad black eyes, all the more beautiful +beneath her white Louis XV coiffure, smiled tenderly upon her +faithful friends.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CAPTAIN_VENENOS_PROPOSAL_OF_MARRIAGE" id="CAPTAIN_VENENOS_PROPOSAL_OF_MARRIAGE"></a><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>CAPTAIN VENENO'S PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE</h2> + +<div class="center"><b><span class="smcap">Pedro Antonio de Alarcón</span></b></div> + + +<p>"Great heavens! What a woman!" cried the captain, and stamped with +fury. "Not without reason have I been trembling and in fear of her +from the first time I saw her! It must have been a warning of fate +that I stopped playing <i>écarté</i> with her. It was also a bad omen that +I passed so many sleepless nights. Was there ever mortal in a worse +perplexity than I am? How can I leave her alone without a protector, +loving her, as I do, more than my own life? And, on the other hand, +how can I marry her, after all my declaimings against marriage?"</p> + +<p>Then turning to Augustias—"What would they say of me in the club? +What would people say of me, if they met me in the street with a woman +on my arm, or if they found me at home, just about to feed a child in +swaddling clothes? I—to have children? To worry about them? To live +in eternal fear that they might fall sick or die? Augustias, believe +me, as true as there is a God above us, I am absolutely unfit for it! +I should behave in such a way that after a short while you would call +upon heaven either to be divorced or to become a widow. Listen to my +advice: do not marry me, even if I ask you."</p> + +<p>"What a strange creature you are," said the young woman, without +allowing herself to be <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>at all discomposed, and sitting very erect in +her chair. "All that you are only telling to yourself! From what do +you conclude that I wish to be married to you; that I would accept +your offer, and that I should not prefer living by myself, even if I +had to work day and night, as so many girls do who are orphans?"</p> + +<p>"How do I come to that conclusion?" answered the captain with the +greatest candor. "Because it cannot be otherwise. Because we love each +other. Because we are drawn to each other. Because a man such as I, +and a woman such as you, cannot live in any other way! Do you suppose +I do not understand that? Don't you suppose I have reflected on it +before now? Do you think I am indifferent in your good name and +reputation? I have spoken plainly in order to speak, in order to fly +from my own conviction, in order to examine whether I can escape from +this terrible dilemma which is robbing me of my sleep, and whether I +can possibly find an expedient so that I need not marry you—to do +which I shall finally be compelled, if you stand by your resolve to +make your way alone!"</p> + +<p>"Alone! Alone!" repeated Augustias, roguishly. "And why not with a +worthier companion? Who tells you that I shall not some day meet a man +whom I like, and who is not afraid to marry me?"</p> + +<p>"Augustias! let us skip that!" growled the captain, his face turning +scarlet.</p> + +<p>"And why should we not talk about it?"</p> + +<p>"Let us pass over that, and let me say, at the same time, that I will +murder the man who <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>dares to ask for your hand. But it is madness on +my part to be angry without any reason. I am not so dull as not to see +how we two stand. Shall I tell you? We love each other. Do not tell me +I am mistaken! That would be lying. And here is the proof: if you did +not love me, I, too, should not love you! Let us try to meet one +another halfway. I ask for a delay of ten years. When I shall have +completed my half century, and when, a feeble old man, I shall have +become familiar with the idea of slavery, then we will marry without +anyone knowing about it. We will leave Madrid, and go to the country, +where we shall have no spectators, where there will be nobody to make +fun of me. But until this happens, please take half of my income +secretly, and without any human soul ever knowing anything about it. +You continue to live here, and I remain in my house. We will see each +other, but only in the presence of witnesses—for instance, in +society. We will write to each other every day. So as not to endanger +your good name, I will never pass through this street, and on Memorial +Day only we will go to the cemetery together with Rosa."</p> + +<p>Augustias could not but smile at the last proposal of the good +captain, and her smile was not mocking, but contented and happy, as if +some cherished hope had dawned in her heart, as if it were the first +ray of the sun of happiness which was about to rise in her heaven! But +being a woman—though as brave and free from artifices as few of +them—she yet managed to subdue the signs of joy rising within her. +<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>She acted as if she cherished not the slightest hope, and said with a +distant coolness which is usually the special and genuine sign of +chaste reserve:</p> + +<p>"You make yourself ridiculous with your peculiar conditions. You +stipulate for the gift of an engagement-ring, for which nobody has yet +asked you."</p> + +<p>"I know still another way out—for a compromise, but that is really +the last one. Do you fully understand, my young lady from Aragon? It +is the last way out, which a man, also from Aragon, begs leave to +explain to you."</p> + +<p>She turned her head and looked straight into his eyes, with an +expression indescribably earnest, captivating, quiet, and full of +expectation.</p> + +<p>The captain had never seen her features so beautiful and expressive; +at that moment she looked to him like a queen.</p> + +<p>"Augustias," said, or rather stammered, this brave soldier, who had +been under fire a hundred times, and who had made such a deep +impression on the young girl through his charging under a rain of +bullets like a lion, "I have the honor to ask for your hand on one +certain, essential, unchangeable condition. Tomorrow morning—today—a +soon as the papers are in order—as quickly as possible. I can live +without you no longer!"</p> + +<p>The glances of the young girl became milder, and she rewarded him for +his decided heroism with a tender and bewitching smile.</p> + +<p>"But I repeat that it is on one condition," the bold warrior hastened +to repeat, feeling <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>that Augustias's glances made him confused and +weak.</p> + +<p>"On what condition?" asked the young girl, turning fully round, and +now holding him under the witchery of her sparkling black eyes.</p> + +<p>"On the condition," he stammered, "that, in case we have children, we +send them to the orphanage. I mean—on this point I will never yield. +Well, do you consent? For heaven's sake, say yes!"</p> + +<p>"Why should I not consent to it, Captain Veneno?" answered Augustias, +with a peal of laughter. "You shall take them there yourself, or, +better still, we both of us will take them there. And we will give +them up without kissing them, or anything else! Don't you think we +shall take them there?"</p> + +<p>Thus spoke Augustias, and looked at the captain with exquisite joy in +her eyes. The good captain thought he would die of happiness; a flood +of tears burst from his eyes; he folded the blushing girl in his arms, +and said:</p> + +<p>"So I am lost?"</p> + +<p>"Irretrievably lost, Captain Veneno," answered Augustias.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One morning in May, 1852—that is, four years after the scene just +described—a friend of mine, who told me this story, stopped his horse +in front of a mansion on San Francisco Avenue, in Madrid; he threw the +reins to his groom, and asked the long-coated footman who met him at +the door:</p> + +<p>"Is your master at home?"</p> + +<p>"If your honor will be good enough to walk <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>upstairs, you will find +him in the library. His excellency does not like to have visitors +announced. Everybody can go up to him directly."</p> + +<p>"Fortunately I know the house thoroughly," said the stranger to +himself, while he mounted the stairs. "In the library! Well, well, who +would have thought of Captain Veneno ever taking to the sciences?"</p> + +<p>Wandering through the rooms, the visitor met another servant, who +repeated, "The master is in the library." And at last he came to the +door of the room in question, opened it quickly, and stood, almost +turned to stone for astonishment, before the remarkable group which it +offered to his view.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the room, on the carpet which covered the floor, a +man was crawling on all-fours. On his back rode a little fellow about +three years old, who was kicking the man's sides with his heels. +Another small boy, who might have been a year and a half old, stood in +front of the man's head, and had evidently been tumbling his hair. One +hand held the father's neckerchief, and the little fellow was tugging +at it as if it had been a halter, shouting with delight in his merry +child's voice:</p> + +<p>"Gee up, donkey! Gee up!"</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's First Love (Little Blue Book #1195), by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 15610-h.htm or 15610-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/1/15610/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: First Love (Little Blue Book #1195) + And Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + First Love + And Other Fascinating Stories + of Spanish Life + + + Emilia Pardo-Bazan + and Others + + + LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1195 + Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius + + + HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY + GIRARD, KANSAS + + + + +CONTENTS + + + First Love + _Emilia Pardo-Bazan._ + + An Andalusian Duel + _Serafin Estebanez Calderon._ + + Mariquita the Bald + _Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch._ + + The Love of Clotilde + _Armando Palacio Valdes._ + + Captain Veneno's Proposal of Marriage + _Pedro Antonio de Alarcon._ + + + + +FIRST LOVE + +Emilia Pardo-Bazan + + +How old was I then? Eleven or twelve years? More probably thirteen, +for before then is too early to be seriously in love; but I won't +venture to be certain, considering that in Southern countries the +heart matures early, if that organ is to blame for such perturbations. + +If I do not remember well _when_, I can at least say exactly _how_ my +first love revealed itself. I was very fond--as soon as my aunt had +gone to church to perform her evening devotions--of slipping into her +bedroom and rummaging her chest of drawers, which she kept in +admirable order. Those drawers were to me a museum; in them I always +came across something rare or antique, which exhaled an archaic and +mysterious scent, the aroma of the sandalwood fans which perfumed her +white linen. Pin-cushions of satin now faded; knitted mittens, +carefully wrapped in tissue paper; prints of saints; sewing materials; +a reticule of blue velvet embroidered with bugles, an amber and silver +rosary would appear from the corners: I used to ponder over them, and +return them to their place. But one day--I remember as well as if it +were today--in the corner of the top drawer, and lying on some collars +of old lace, I saw something gold glittering--I put in my hand, +unwittingly crumpled the lace, and drew out a portrait, an ivory +miniature, about three inches long, in a frame of gold. + +I was struck at first sight. A sunbeam streamed through the window and +fell upon the alluring form, which seemed to wish to step out of its +dark background and come towards me. It was the most lovely creature, +such as I had never seen except in the dreams of my adolescence. The +lady of the portrait must have been some twenty odd years; she was no +simple maiden, no half-opened rosebud, but a woman in the full +resplendency of her beauty. Her face was oval, but not too long, her +lips full, half-open and smiling, her eyes cast a languishing +side-glance, and she had a dimple on her chin as if formed by the tip +of Cupid's playful finger. Her head-dress was strange but elegant; a +compact group of curls plastered conewise one over the other covered +her temples, and a basket of braided hair rose on the top of her head. +This old-fashioned head-dress, which was trussed up from the nape of +her neck, disclosed all the softness of her fresh young throat, on +which the dimple of her chin was reduplicated more vaguely and +delicately. + +As for the dress--I do not venture to consider whether our +grandmothers were less modest than our wives are, or if the confessors +of past times were more indulgent than those of the present; I am +inclined to think the latter, for seventy years ago women prided +themselves upon being Christianlike and devout, and would not have +disobeyed the director of their conscience in so grave and important a +matter. What is undeniable is, that if in the present day any lady +were to present herself in the garb of the lady of the portrait, there +would be a scandal; for from her waist (which began at her armpits) +upwards, she was only veiled by light folds of diaphanous gauze, which +marked out, rather than covered, two mountains of snow, between which +meandered a thread of pearls. With further lack of modesty she +stretched out two rounded arms worthy of Juno, ending in finely molded +hands--when I say _hands_ I am not exact, for, strictly speaking, only +one hand could be seen, and that held a richly embroidered +handkerchief. + +Even today I am astonished at the startling effect which the +contemplation of that miniature produced upon me, and how I remained +in ecstasy, scarcely breathing, devouring the portrait with my eyes. I +had already seen here and there prints representing beautiful women. +It often happened that in the illustrated papers, in the mythological +engravings of our dining-room, or in a shop-window, that a beautiful +face, or a harmonious and graceful figure attracted my precociously +artistic gaze. But the miniature encountered in my aunt's drawer, +apart from its great beauty, appeared to me as if animated by a subtle +and vital breath; you could see it was not the caprice of a painter, +but the image of a real and actual person of flesh and blood. The warm +and rich tone of the tints made you surmise that the blood was tepid +beneath that mother-of-pearl skin. The lips were slightly parted to +disclose the enameled teeth; and to complete the illusion there ran +round the frame a border of natural hair, chestnut in color, wavy and +silky, which had grown on the temples of the original. + +As I have said, it was more than a copy, it was the reflection of a +living person from whom I was only separated by a wall of glass.--I +seized it, breathed upon it, and it seemed to me that the warmth of +the mysterious deity communicated itself to my lips and circulated +through my veins. At this moment I heard footsteps in the corridor. It +was my aunt returning from her prayers. I heard her asthmatic cough, +and the dragging of her gouty feet. I had only just time to put the +miniature into the drawer, shut it, and approach the window, adopting +an innocent and indifferent attitude. + +My aunt entered noisily, for the cold of the church had exasperated +her catarrh, now chronic. Upon seeing me, her wrinkled eyes +brightened, and giving me a friendly tap with her withered hand, she +asked me if I had been turning over her drawers as usual. + +Then, with a chuckle: + +"Wait a bit, wait a bit," she added, "I have something for you, +something you will like." + +And she pulled out of her vast pocket a paper bag, and out of the bag +three or four gum lozenges, sticking together in a cake, which gave me +a feeling of nausea. + +My aunt's appearance did not invite one to open one's mouth and devour +these sweets: the course of years, her loss of teeth, her eyes dimmed +to an unusual degree, the sprouting of a mustache or bristles on her +sunken-in mouth, which was three inches wide, dull gray locks +fluttering above her sallow temples, a neck flaccid and livid as the +crest of the turkey when in a good temper.--In short, I did not take +the lozenges. Ugh! A feeling of indignation, a manly protest rose in +me, and I said forcibly: + +"I do not want it, I don't want it." + +"You don't want it? What a wonder! You who are greedier than a cat!" + +"I am not a little boy," I exclaimed, drawing myself up, and standing +on tiptoes; "I don't care for sweets." + +My aunt looked at me half good-humoredly and half ironically, and at +last, giving way to the feeling of amusement I caused her, burst out +laughing, by which she disfigured herself, and exposed the horrible +anatomy of her jaws. She laughed so heartily that her chin and nose +met, hiding her lips, and emphasizing two wrinkles, or rather two deep +furrows, and more than a dozen lines on her cheeks and eyelids; at the +same time her head and body shook with the laughter, until at last her +cough began to interrupt the bursts, and between laughing and coughing +the old lady involuntarily spluttered all over my face. Humiliated, +and full of disgust, I escaped rapidly thence to my mother's room, +where I washed myself with soap and water, and began to muse on the +lady of the portrait. + +And from that day and hour I could not keep my thoughts from her. As +soon as my aunt went out, to slip into her room, open the drawer, +bring out the miniature, and lose myself in contemplation, was the +work of a minute. By dint of looking at it, I fancied that her +languishing eyes, through the voluptuous veiling, of her eyelashes, +were fixed in mine, and that her white bosom heaved. I became ashamed +to kiss her, imagining she would be annoyed at my audacity, and only +pressed her to my heart or held her against my cheek. All my actions +and thoughts referred to the lady; I behaved towards her with the most +extraordinary refinement and super-delicacy. Before entering my aunt's +room and opening the longed-for drawer, I washed, combed my hair, and +tidied myself, as I have seen since is usually done before repairing +to a love appointment. + +I often happened to meet in the street other boys of my age, very +proud of their slip of a sweetheart, who would exultingly show me +love-letters, photographs, and flowers, and who asked me if I hadn't a +sweetheart with whom to correspond. A feeling of inexplicable +bashfulness tied my tongue, and I only replied with an enigmatic and +haughty smile. And when they questioned me as to what I thought of the +beauty of their little maidens, I would shrug my shoulders and +disdainfully call them _ugly mugs_. + +One Sunday I went to play in the house of some little girl-cousins, +really very pretty, the eldest of whom was not yet fifteen. We were +amusing ourselves looking into a stereoscope, when suddenly one of the +little girls, the youngest, who counted twelve summers at most, +secretly seized my hand, and in some confusion and blushing as red as +a brazier, whispered in my ear: + +"Take this." + +At the same time I felt in the palm of my hand something soft and +fresh, and saw that it was a rosebud with its green foliage. The +little girl ran away smiling and casting a side-glance at me; but I, +with a Puritanism worthy of Joseph, cried out in my turn: + +"Take this!" + +And I threw the rosebud at her nose, a rebuff which made her tearful +and pettish with me the whole afternoon, and for which she has not +pardoned me even now, though she is married and has three children. + +The two or three hours which my aunt spent morning and evening +together at church being too short for my admiration of the entrancing +portrait, I resolved at last to keep the miniature in my pocket, and +went about all day hiding myself from people just as if I had +committed some crime. I fancied that the portrait from the depth of +its prison of cloth could see all my actions, and I arrived at such a +ridiculous extremity, that if I wanted to scratch myself, pull up my +sock, or do anything else not in keeping with the idealism of my +chaste love, I first drew out the miniature, put it in a safe place, +and then considered myself free to do whatever I wanted. In fact, +since I had accomplished the theft, there was no limit to my vagaries. +At night I hid it under the pillow, and slept in an attitude of +defense; the portrait remained near the wall, I outside, and I awoke +a thousand times, fearing somebody would come to bereave me of my +treasure. At last I drew it from beneath the pillow and slipped it +between my nightshirt and left breast, on which the following day +could be seen the imprint of the chasing of the frame. + +The contact of the dear miniature gave me delicious dreams. The lady +of the portrait, not in effigy, but in her natural size and +proportions, alive, graceful, affable, beautiful, would come towards +me to conduct me to her palace by a rapid and flying train. With sweet +authority she would make me sit on a stool at her feet, and would pass +her beautifully molded hand over my head, caressing my brow, my eyes, +and loose curls. I read to her out of a big missal, or played the +lute, and she deigned to smile, thanking me for the pleasure which my +reading and songs gave her. At last romantic reminiscences overflowed +in my brain, and sometimes I was a page, and sometimes a troubadour. + +With all these fanciful ideas, the fact is that I began to grow thin +quite perceptibly, which was observed with great disquietude in my +parents and my aunt. + +"In this dangerous and critical age of development, everything is +alarming," said my father, who used to read books of medicine, and +anxiously studied my dark eyelids, my dull eyes, my contracted and +pale lips, and above all, the complete lack of appetite which had +taken possession of me. + +"Play, boy; eat, boy," he would say to me, and I replied to him, +dejectedly: + +"I don't feel inclined." + +They began to talk of distractions, offered to take me to the theater; +stopped my studies, and gave me foaming new milk to drink. Afterwards +they poured cold water over my head and back to fortify my nerves; and +I noticed that my father at table or in the morning when I went to his +bedroom to bid him good morning, would gaze at me fixedly for some +little time, and would sometimes pass his hand down my spine, feeling +the vertebrae. I hypocritically lowered my eyes, resolved to die +rather than confess my crime. As soon as I was free from the +affectionate solicitude of my family, I found myself alone with my +lady of the portrait. At last, to get nearer to her, I thought I would +do away with the cold crystal. I trembled upon putting this into +execution; but at last my love prevailed over the vague fear with +which such a profanation filled me, and with skillful cunning I +succeeded in pulling away the glass and exposing the ivory plate. As I +pressed my lips to the painting I could scent the slight fragrance of +the border of hair, I imagined to myself even more realistically that +it was a living person whom I was grasping with my trembling hands. A +feeling of faintness overpowered me, and I fell unconscious on the +sofa, tightly holding the miniature. + +When I came to my senses I saw my father, my mother, and my aunt, all +bending anxiously over me; I read their terror and alarm in their +faces; my father was feeling my pulse, shaking his head, and +murmuring: + +"His pulse is nothing but a flutter, you can scarcely feel it." + +My aunt, with her claw-like fingers, was trying to take the portrait +from me, and I was mechanically hiding it and grasping it more firmly. + +"But, my dear boy--let go, you are spoiling it!" she exclaimed. "Don't +you see you are smudging it? I am not scolding you, my dear.--I will +show it to you as often as you like, but don't destroy it; let go, you +are injuring it." + +"Let him have it," begged my mother, "the boy is not well." + +"Of all things to ask!" replied the old maid. "Let him have it! And +who will paint another like this--or make me as I was then? Today +nobody paints miniatures--it is a thing of the past, and I also am a +thing of the past, and I am not what is represented there!" + +My eyes dilated with horror; my fingers released their hold on the +picture. I don't know how I was able to articulate: + +"You--the portrait--is you?" + +"Don't you think I am as pretty now, boy? Bah! one is better looking +at twenty-three than at--than at--I don't know what, for I have +forgotten how old I am!" + +My head drooped and I almost fainted again; anyway, my father lifted +me in his arms on to the bed, and made me swallow some tablespoonfuls +of port. + +I recovered very quickly, and never wished to enter my aunt's room +again. + + + + +AN ANDALUSIAN DUEL + +Serafin Estebanez Calderon + + +Through the little square of St. Anna, towards a certain tavern, where +the best wine is to be quaffed in Seville, there walked in measured +steps two men whose demeanor clearly manifested the soil which gave +them birth. He who walked in the middle of the street, taller than the +other by about a finger's length, sported with affected carelessness +the wide, slouched hat of Ecija, with tassels of glass beads and a +ribbon as black as his sins. He wore his cloak gathered under his left +arm; the right, emerging from a turquoise lining, exposed the merino +lambskin with silver clasps. The herdsman's boots--white, with Turkish +buttons,--the breeches gleaming red from below the cloak and covering +the knee, and, above all, his strong and robust appearance, dark curly +hair, and eye like a red-hot coal, proclaimed at a distance that all +this combination belonged to one of those men who put an end to horses +between their knees and tire out the bull with their lance. + +He walked on, arguing with his companion, who was rather spare than +prodigal in his person, but marvelously lithe and supple. The latter +was shod with low shoes, garters united the stockings to the +light-blue breeches, the waistcoat was cane-colored, his sash light +green, and jaunty shoulder-knots, lappets, and rows of buttons +ornamented the carmelite jacket. The open cloak, the hat drawn over +his ear, his short, clean steps, and the manifestations in all his +limbs and movements of agility and elasticity beyond trial plainly +showed that in the arena, carmine cloth in hand, he would mock at the +most frenzied of Jarama bulls, or the best horned beasts from Utrera. + +I--who adore and die for such people, though the compliment be not +returned--went slowly in the wake of their worships, and, unable to +restrain myself, entered with them the same tavern, or rather +eating-house, since there they serve certain provocatives as well as +wine, and I, as my readers perceive, love to call things by their +right name. I entered and sat down at once, and in such a manner as +not to interrupt Oliver and Roland, and that they might not notice me, +when I saw that, as if believing themselves alone, they threw their +arms with an amicable gesture round each others' neck, and thus began +their discourse: + +"Pulpete," said the taller, "now that we are going to meet each +other, knife in hand--you here, I there,--_one, two_,--_on your +guard_,--_triz, traz_,--_have that_,--_take this and call it what +you like_--let us first drain a tankard to the music and measure +of some songs." + +"Senor Balbeja," replied Pulpete, drawing his face aside and spitting +with the greatest neatness and pulchritude towards his shoe, "I am not +the kind of man either for La Gorja or other similar earthly matters, +or because a steel tongue is sheathed in my body, or my weasand slit, +or for any other such trifle, to be provoked or vexed with such a +friend as Balbeja. Let the wine be brought, and then, we will sing; +and afterwards blood--blood to the hilt." + +The order was given, they clinked glasses, and, looking one at the +other, sang a Sevillian song. + +This done, they threw off their cloaks with an easy grace, and +unsheathed their knives with which to prick one another, the one +Flemish with a white haft, the other from Guadix, with a guard to the +hilt, both blades dazzling in their brightness, and sharpened and +ground enough for operating upon cataracts, much less ripping up +bellies and bowels. The two had already cleft the air several times +with the said lancets, their cloak wound round their left arm--first +drawing closer, then back, now more boldly and in bounds--when Pulpete +hoisted the flag for parley, and said: + +"Balbeja, my friend, I only beg you to do me the favor not to fan my +face with _Juilon_ your knife, since a slash might use it so ill that +my mother who bore me would not know me, and I should not like to be +considered ugly; neither is it right to mar and destroy what God made +in His likeness." + +"Agreed," replied Balbeja; "I will aim lower." + +"Except--except my stomach also, for I was ever a friend to +cleanliness, and I should not like to see myself fouled in a bad way, +if your knife and arm played havoc with my liver and intestines." + +"I will strike higher; but let us go on." + +"Take care of my chest, it was always weak." + +"Then just tell me, friend, _where_ am I to sound or tap you?" + +"My dear Balbeja, there's always plenty of time and space to hack at a +man; I have here on my left arm a wen, of which you can make meat as +much as you like." + +"Here goes for it," said Balbeja, and he hurled himself like an arrow; +the other warded off the thrust with his cloak, and both, like skilful +penmen, began again tracing S's and signatures in the air with dashes +and flourishes without, however, raising a particle of skin. + +I do not know what would have been the end of this onslaught, since my +venerable, dry, and shriveled person was not suitable for forming a +point of exclamation between two combatants; and the tavern-keeper +troubled so little about what was happening that he drowned the +stamping of their feet and clatter of the tumbling stools and utensils +by scraping street music on a guitar as loud as he could. Otherwise he +was as calm as if he were entertaining two angels instead of two +devils incarnate. + +I do not know, I repeat, how this scene would have ended, when there +crossed the threshold a parsonage who came to take a part in the +development of the drama. There entered, I say, a woman of twenty to +twenty-two years of age, diminutive in body, superlative in audacity +and grace. Neat and clean hose and shoes, short, black flounced +petticoat, a linked girdle, head-dress or mantilla of fringed taffeta +caught together at the nape of her neck, and a corner of it over her +shoulder, she passed before my eyes with swaying hips, arms akimbo, +and moving her head to and fro as she looked about her on all sides. + +Upon seeing her the tavern-keeper dropped his instrument, and I was +overtaken by perturbation such as I had not experienced for thirty +years (I am, after all, only flesh and blood); but, without halting +for such lay-figures, she advanced to the field of battle. + +There was a lively to-do here; Don Pulpete and Don Balbeja when they +saw Dona Gorja appear, first cause of the disturbance and future prize +for the victor, increased their feints, flourishes, curvets, onsets, +crouching, and bounds--all, however, without touching a hair. Our +Helen witnessed in silence for a long time this scene in history with +that feminine pleasure which the daughters of Eve enjoy at such +critical moments. But gradually her pretty brow clouded over, until, +drawing from her delicate ear, not a flower or earring, but the stump +of a cigar, she hurled it amidst the jousters. Not even Charles V's +cane in the last duel in Spain produced such favorable effects. Both +came forward immediately with formal respect, and each, by reason of +the discomposure of his person and clothes, presumed to urge a title +by which to recommend himself to the fair with the flounces. She, as +though pensive, was going over the passage of arms in her mind, and +then, with firm and confident resolution, spoke thus: + +"And is this affair for me?" + +"Who else should it be for? since I--since nobody--" they replied in +the same breath. + +"Listen, gentlemen," said she. "For females such as I and my parts, +of my charms and descent--daughter of La Gatusa, niece of La Mendez, +and granddaughter of La Astrosa--know that there are neither pacts nor +compacts, nor any such futile things, nor are any of them worth a +farthing. And when men challenge each other, let the knife do its work +and the red blood flow, so as not to have my mother's daughter present +without giving her the pleasure of snapping her fingers in the face of +the other. If you pretend you are fighting for me, it's a lie; you are +wholly mistaken, and that not by halves. I love neither of you. +Mingalarios of Zafra is to my taste, and he and I look upon you with +scorn and contempt. Good-by, my braves; and, if you like, call my man +to account." + +She spoke, spat, smoothed the saliva with the point of her shoe, +looking Pulpete and Balbeja full in the face, and went out with the +same expressive movements with which she entered. + +The two unvarnished braggarts followed the valorous Dona Gorja with +their eyes; and then with a despicable gesture drew their knives +across their sleeve as though wiping off the blood there might have +been, sheathed them at one and the same time, and said together: + +"Through woman the world was lost, through a woman Spain was lost; but +it has never been known, nor do ballads relate, nor the blind beggars +sing, nor is it heard in the square or markets, that two valiant men +killed each, other for another lover." + +"Give me that fist, Don Pulpete." + +"Your hand, Don Balbeja." + +They spoke and strode out into the street, the best friends in the +world, leaving me all amazed at such whimsicality. + + + + +MARIQUITA THE BALD + +Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch + + +It is as sorry a matter to use words of whose meaning one is ignorant +as it is a blemish for a man of sense to speak of what he knows +nothing about. I say this to those of you who may have the present +story in your hands, however often you may have happened to have heard +_Mariquita the Bald_ mentioned, and I swear by my doublet that you +shall soon know who Mariquita the Bald was, as well as I know who ate +the Christmas turkey, setting aside the surmise that it certainly must +have been a mouth. + +I desire, therefore, to enlighten your ignorance of this subject, and +beg to inform you that the said noted Maria (Mariquita is a diminutive +of Maria) was born in the District of Segovia, and in the town of San +Garcia, the which town is famed for the beauty of the maidens reared +within its walls, who for the most part have such gentle and lovely +faces that may I behold such around me at the hour of my death. +Maria's father was an honest farmer, by name Juan Lanas, a Christian +old man and much beloved, who had inherited no mean estate from his +forefathers, though with but little wit in his crown,--a lack which +was the cause of much calamity to both the father and the daughter, +for in the times to which we have attained, God forgive me if it is +not necessary to have more of the knave than of the fool in one's +composition. + +Now it came to pass that Juan Lanas, for the castigation of his sins, +must needs commit himself to a lawsuit with one of his neighbors about +a vine stock which was worth about fifty _maravedis_; and Juan was in +the right, and the judges gave the verdict in his favor, so that he +won his case, excepting that the suit lasted no less than ten years +and the costs amounted to nothing less than fifty thousand +_maravedis_, not to speak of a disease of the eyes which, after all +was over, left him blind. When he found himself with diminished +property and without his eyesight, in sorrow and disgust he turned +into money such part of his patrimony as sufficed to rid him of the +hungry herd of scriveners and lawyers, and took his way to Toledo with +his daughter, who was already entering upon her sixteenth year, and +had matured into one of the most beautiful, graceful, and lovable +damsels to be found throughout all Castile and the kingdoms beyond. + +For she was white as the lily and red like the rose, straight and tall +of stature, and slender in the waist, with fair, shapely hips; and +again her foot and hand were plump and small to a marvel, and she +possessed a head of hair which reached to her knees. For I knew the +widow Sarmiento who was their housekeeper, and she told me how she +could scarcely clasp Mariquita's hair with both hands, and that she +could not comb the hair unless Maria stood up and the housekeeper +mounted on a footstool, for if Maria sat down the long tresses swept +the ground, and therefore became all entangled. + +And do not imagine, her beauty and grace being such, that she sinned +greatly in pride and levity, as is the wont of girls in this age. She +was as humble as a cloistered lay-sister, and as silent as if she were +not a woman, and patient as the sucking lamb, and industrious as the +ant, clean as the ermine, and pure as a saint of those times in which, +by the grace of the Most High, saintly women were born into the world. +But I must confide to you in friendship that our Mariquita was not a +little vain about her hair, and loved to display it, and for this +reason, now in the streets, now when on a visit, now when at mass, it +is said she used to subtilely loosen her mantilla so that her tresses +streamed down her back, the while feigning forgetfulness and +carelessness. She never wore a hood, for she said it annoyed her and +choked her; and every time that her father reproached her for some +deed deserving of punishment and threatened to cut off her hair, I +warrant you she suffered three times more than after a lash from the +whip, and would then be good for three weeks successively; so much so +that Juan Lanas, perceiving her amendment, would laugh under his +cloak, and when saying his say to his gossips would tell them that his +daughter, like the other saint of Sicily, would reach heaven by her +hair. + +Having read so far, you must now know that Juan Lanas, the blind man, +with the change of district and dwelling did not change his judgment +and if he was crack-brained at San Garcia, he remained crack-brained +at Toledo, consuming in this resort his money upon worthless drugs and +quacks which did not cure his blindness and impoverished him more and +more every day, so that if his daughter had not been so dexterous with +her fingers in making and broidering garments of linen, wool, and +silk, I promise you that this miserable Juan would have had to go for +more than four Sundays without a clean shirt to put on or a mouthful +to eat, unless he had begged it from door to door. + +The years passed by to find Maria every day more beautiful, and her +father every day more blind and more desirous to see, until his +affliction and trouble took such forcible possession of his breast and +mind, that Maria saw as clear as daylight that if her father did not +recover his sight, he would die of grief. Maria thereupon straightway +took her father and led him to the house of an Arabian physician of +great learning who dwelt at Toledo, and told the Moor to see if there +were any cure for the old man's sight. The Arabian examined and +touched Juan, and made this and that experiment with him, and +everything prospered, in that the physician swore great oaths by the +heel-bone of Mohammed that there was a complete certainty of curing +Juan and making him to see his daughter again, if only he, the +physician, were paid for the cure with five hundred _maravedis_ all in +gold. A sad termination for such a welcome beginning, for the two +unhappy creatures, Juan and Maria, had neither _maravedi_ nor +_cuarto_ in the money box! So they went thence all downcast, and Maria +never ceased praying to his Holiness Saint John and his Holiness Saint +James (the patron saint of Spain) to repair to their assistance in +this sad predicament. + +"In what way," conjectured she inwardly, "in what way can I raise five +hundred _maravedis_ to be quits with the Moor who will give back his +sight to my poor old father? All! I have it. I am a pretty maid, and +suitors innumerable, commoners and nobles, pay their addresses and +compliments to me. But all are trifling youths who only care for +love-making and who seek light o' loves rather than spouses according +to the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember, notwithstanding, that +opposite our house lives the sword-cutler, Master Palomo, who is +always looking at me and never speaks to me, and the Virgin assist me, +he appears a man of very good condition for a husband; but what +maiden, unless she were cross-eyed, or hunch-backed, could like a man +with such a flat nose, with that skin the color of a ripe date, with +those eyes like a dead calf's, and with those huge hands, which are +more like the paws of a wild beast that the belongings of a person who +with them should softly caress the woman whom Destiny bestows upon him +for a companion? 'Tis said that he is no drunkard, nor cudgeler, nor +dallier with women, nor a liar, and that he is besides possessed of +much property and very rich. Pity 'tis that one who is so ugly and +stiff-necked should unite such parts." + +Thus turning the matter over and over in her mind, Maria together +with Juan reached their home, where was awaiting them an esquire in a +long mourning robe, who told Maria that the aunt of the mayor of the +city had died in an honest estate and in the flower of her age, for +she had not yet completed her seventy years, and that the obsequies of +this sexagenarian damsel were to be performed the following day, on +which occasion her coffin would be carried to the church by maidens, +and he was come to ask Maria if she would please to be one of the +bearers of the dead woman, for which she would receive a white robe, +and to eat, and ducat, and thanks into the bargain. + +Maria, since she was a well-brought-up maid, replied that if it seemed +well to her father, it would also seem well to her. + +Juan accepted, and Maria was rejoiced to be able to make a display of +her hair, for it is well known that the maidens who bear one another +to the grave walk with disheveled locks. And when on the morrow the +tiring-women of the mayoress arrayed Maria in a robe white as the +driven snow and fine as the skin of an onion; and when they girt her +slender waist with a sash of crimson silk, the ends of which hung down +to the broad hem of the skirt; and when they crowned her smooth and +white forehead with a wreath of white flowers, I warrant you that, +what with the robe and the sash and the wreath, and the beautiful +streaming hair and her lovely countenance and gracious mien, she +seemed no female formed of flesh and blood, but a superhuman creature +or blessed resident of those shining circles in which dwell the +celestial hierarchies. The mayor and the other mourners stepped forth +to see her, and all unceasingly praised God, who was pleased to +perform such miracles for the consolation and solace of those living +in this world. + +And there in a corner of the hall, motionless like a heap of broken +stones, stood one of the mutes with the hood of his long cloak +covering his head, so that nothing could be seen but his eyes, the +which he kept fixed on the fair damsel. The latter modestly lowered +her eyes to the ground with her head a little bent and her cheeks red +for bashfulness, although it pleased her no little to hear the praises +of her beauty. At this moment a screen was pushed aside, and there +began to appear a huge bulk of petticoats, which was nothing less than +the person of the mayoress, for she was with child and drawing near to +her time. And when she saw Maria, she started, opened her eyes a +hand's-breadth wide, bit her lips, and called hurriedly for her +husband. They stepped aside for a good while, and then hied them +thence, and when they returned the mutes and maidens had all gone. + +While they were burying the defunct lady I must tell you, curious +readers, that the mayor and mayoress had been married for many years +without having any children, and they longed for them like the +countryman for rain in the month of May, and at last her hour of bliss +came to the mayoress, to the great content of her husband. Now, it +was whispered that the said lady had always been somewhat capricious; +judge for yourselves what she would be now in the time of her +pregnancy! And as she was already on the way to fifty, she was more +than mediocrely bald and hairless, and on these very same days had +commissioned a woman barber, who lived in the odor of witchcraft, to +prepare for her some false hair, but it was not to be that of a dead +woman, for the mayoress said very sensibly that if the hair belonged +to a dead woman who rejoiced in supreme glory, or was suffering for +her sins in purgatory, it would be profanation to wear any pledge of +theirs, and if they were in hell, it was a terrible thing to wear on +one's person relics of one of the damned. And when the mayoress saw +the abundant locks of Maria, she coveted them for herself, and it was +for this reason that she called to the mayor to speak to her in +private and besought him eagerly to persuade Mario to allow herself to +be shorn upon the return from the burial. + +"I warn you," said the mayor, "that you are desirous of entering upon +a very knotty bargain, for the disheveled girl idolizes her hair in +such wise that she would sooner lose a finger than suffer one of her +tresses to be cut off." + +"I warn you," replied the mayoress, "that if on this very day the head +of this young girl is not shorn smooth beneath my hand as a melon, the +child to which I am about to give birth will have a head of hair on +its face, and if it happens to be a female, look you, a pretty +daughter is in store for you!" + +"But bethink yourself that Maria will ask, who knows, a good few +crowns for this shaving." + +"Bethink yourself that if not, your heir or heiress, begotten after +many years' marriage, will come amiss; and bear in mind, by the way, +that we are not so young as to hope to replace this by another." + +Upon this she turned her back to the mayor, and went to her apartment +crying out: "I want the hair, I must have the hair, and if I do not +get the hair, by my halidom I shall never become a mother." + +In the meantime the funeral had taken place without any novelty to +mention, excepting that if in the streets any loose fellow in the +crowd assayed to annoy the fair Maria, the hooded mute, of whom we +made mention before, quickly drew from beneath his cloak a strap, with +which he gave a lash to the insolent rogue without addressing one word +to him, and then walked straight on as if nothing had happened. When +all the mourners returned, the mayor seized hold of Maria's hand and +said to her: + +"And now, fair maid, let us withdraw for a little while into this +other apartment," and thus talking whilst in motion he brought her +into his wife's private tiring-room, and sat himself down in a chair +and bent his head and stroked his beard with the mien of one who is +studying what beginning to give his speech. Maria, a little foolish +and confused, remained standing in front of the mayor, and she also +humbly lowered before him her eyes, black as the sloe; and to occupy +herself with something, gently fingered the ends of the sash, which +girded her waist and hung down over her skirt, not knowing what to +expect from the grave mien and long silence of the mayor, who, raising +his eyes and looking up at Maria, when he beheld her in so modest a +posture, devised thence a motive with which to begin, saying: + +"Forsooth, Maria, so modest and sanctimonious is thy bearing, that it +is easy to see thou art preparing thyself to become a black-wimpled +nun. And if it be so, as I presume it to be, I now offer of my own +accord to dispose of thy entry into the cloisters without any dowry, +on the condition that thou dost give me something that thou hast on +thy head, and which then will not be necessary for thee." + +"Nay, beshrew me, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, "for I durst not think +that the Lord calls upon me to take that step, for then my poor father +would remain in the world without the staff of his old age." + +"Then, now, I desire to give thee some wise counsel, maid Maria. Thou +dost gain thy bread with great fatigue. Thou shouldst make use of thy +time as much as is possible. Now one of thy neighbors hath told me +that in the dressing of thy hair thou dost waste every day more than +an hour. It would be better far if thou didst spend this hour on thy +work rather than in the dressing and braiding which thou dost to thy +hair." + +"That is true, Sir Mayor," replied Maria, turning as red as a +carnation, "but, look you, it is not my fault if I have a wealth of +tresses, the combing and plaiting of which necessitate so long a time +every morning." + +"I tell thee it is thy fault," retorted the mayor, "for if thou didst +cut off this mane, thou wouldst save thyself all this combing and +plaiting, and thus wouldst have more time for work, and so gain more +money, and wouldst also give no occasion to people to call thee vain. +They even say that the devil will some day carry thee off by thy hair. +Nay, do not be distressed, for I already perceive the tears gathering +in thine eyes, for thou hast them indeed very ready at hand; I +admonish thee for thine own good without any self-interest. Cut thy +hair off, shear thyself, shave thyself, good Maria, and to allay the +bitterness of the shearing, I will give fifty _maravedis_, always on +condition that thou dost hand me over the hair." + +When Maria at first heard this offer of so reasonable a sum for this +her hair, it seemed to her a jest of the mayor's, and she smiled right +sweetly while she dried her tears, repeating: + +"You will give me fifty _maravedis_ if I shave myself?" + +Now it appeared to the mayor (who, it is said, was not gifted with all +the prudence of Ulysses) that the smile signified that the maid was +not satisfied with so small a price, and he added: + +"If thou wilt not be content with fifty _maravedis_, I will give thee +a hundred." + +Then Maria saw some hangings of the apartment moving in front of her, +and perceiving a bulky protuberance, she immediately divined that the +mayoress was hiding behind there, and that the protuberance was caused +by her portly form. Now she discovered the mayor's design, and that it +was probably a caprice of his spouse, and she made a vow not to suffer +herself to be shorn unless she acquired by these means the five +hundred _maravedis_ needful to pay the Arabian physician who would +give her father back his eyesight. + +Then the mayor raised his price from a hundred _maravedis_ to a +hundred and fifty, and afterwards to two hundred, and Maria continued +her sweet smiling, shaking of the head, and gestures, and every time +that the mayor bid higher and Maria feigned to be reluctant, she +almost hoped that the mayor would withdraw from his proposition, for +the great grief it caused her to despoil herself of that precious +ornament, notwithstanding that my means of it she might gain her +father's health. Finally the mayor, anxious to conclude the treaty, +for he saw the stirring of the curtains, and knew by them the anxiety +and state of mind of the listener, closed by saying: + +"Go to, hussy, I will give thee five hundred _maravedis_. See, once +and for all, if thou canst agree on these terms." + +"Be it so," replied Maria, sighing as if her soul would flee from her +flesh with these words--"be it so, so long that nobody doth know that +I remain bald." + +"I will give my word for it," said the mayoress, stepping from behind +the curtains with a pair of sharp shears in her hands and a wrapper +over her arm. + +When Maria saw the scissors she turned as yellow as wax, and when they +told her to sit down on the sacrificial chair, she felt herself grow +faint and had to ask for a drink of water; and when they tied the +wrapper round her throat it is related that she would have immediately +torn it asunder if her courage had not failed her. And when at the +first movement of the shears she felt the cold iron against her skull, +I tell you it seemed to her as if they were piercing her heart with a +bright dagger. It is possible that she did not keep her head still for +a moment while this tonsuring was taking place; she moved it in spite +of herself, now to one side, now to another, to flee from the clipping +scissors, of which the rude cuts and the creaking axis wounded her +ears. Her posture and movements, however, were of no avail to the poor +shorn maiden, and the pertinacious shearer, with the anxiety and +covetousness of a pregnant woman satisfying a caprice, seized the hair +well, or ill, by handfuls, and went on bravely clipping, and the locks +fell on to the white wrapper, slipping down thence till they reached +the ground. + +At last the business came to an end, and the mayoress, who was beside +herself with joy, caressingly passed the palm of her hand again and +again over the maid's bald head from the front to the back, saying: + +"By my mother's soul, I have shorn you so regularly and close to the +root that the most skilful barber could not have shorn you better. +Get up and braid the hair while my husband goes to get the money and I +your clothes, so that you can leave the house without anyone +perceiving it." + +The mayor and mayoress went out of the room, and Maria, as soon as she +found herself alone, went to look at herself in a mirror that hung +there; and when she saw herself bald she lost the patience she had had +until then, and groaned with rage and struck herself, and even tried +to wrench off her ears, which appeared to her now outrageously large, +although they were not so in reality. She stamped upon her hair and +cursed herself for having ever consented to lose it, without +remembering her father, and just as if she had no father at all. But +as it is a quality of human nature to accept what cannot be altered, +poor angry Maria calmed down little by little, and she picked up the +hair from the ground and bound it together and braided it into great +ropes, not without kissing it and lamenting over it many times. + +The mayor and the mayoress returned, he with the money and she with +the every-day clothes of Maria, who undressed and folded her white +robe in a kerchief, put on her old gown, hid herself with her shawl to +the eyes, and walked, moaning, to the house of the Moor, without +noticing that the man with the hood over his head was following behind +her, and that when she, in a moment of forgetfulness, lowered her +shawl through the habit she had of displaying her tresses, her bald +head could be plainly seen. The Moor received the five hundred +_maravedis_ with that good-will with which money is always received, +and told Maria to bring Juan Lanas to his house to stay there so long +as there was any risk in the cure. Maria went to fetch the old man, +and kept silence as to her shorn head so as not to grieve him, and +whilst Juan remained the physician's guest, Maria durst not leave her +home except after nightfall, and then well enveloped. This, however, +did not hinder her being followed by the muffled-up man. + +One evening the Moor told her in secret that the next morning he would +remove the bandages from Juan's eyes. Maria went to bed that night +with great rejoicing, but thought to herself that when her father saw +her (which would be with no little pleasure) he would be pleased three +or four times more if he could see her with the pretty head-dress +which she used to wear in her native town. Amidst such cavillation she +donned the next day her best petticoat and ribbons to his to the +Arabian's house; and while she was sitting down to shoe herself she of +a sudden felt something like a hood closing over her head, and, +turning round, she saw behind her the muffled-up man of before, who, +throwing aside his cloak, discovered himself to be the sword-cutler, +Master Palomo, who, without speaking, presented Maria with a little +Venetian mirror, in which she looked and saw herself with her own hair +and garb in such wise that she wondered for a good time if it were not +a dream that the mayoress had shorn her. + +The fact was that Master Palomo was a great crony of the old woman +barber, and had seen in her house Maria's tresses on the very same +afternoon of the morning in which he saw Maria was bald, and keeping +silence upon the matter, had wheedled the old woman into keeping +Maria's hair for him, and dressing for the mayoress some other hair of +the same hue which the crone had from a dead woman--a bargain by which +the crafty old dame acquired many a bright crown. And the story +relates that as soon as Maria regained her much lamented and +sighed-for hair by the hands of the gallant sword-cutler, the master +appeared to her much less ugly than before. I do not know if it tells +that from that moment she began to look on him with more favorable +eyes, but i' sooth it is a fact that upon his asking her to accept his +escort to the Moor's house, she gave her assent, and the two set out +hand in hand, the maiden holding her head up free from mufflers. As +they both entered the physician's apartment her father threw himself +into Maria's arms, crying: + +"Glory to God, I see thee now, my beloved daughter. How tall and +beautiful thou art grown! Verily, it is worth while to become blind +for five years to see one's daughter matured thus! Now that I see +daylight again, it is only right that I should no longer be a burden +to thee. I shall work for myself, for as for thee it is already time +for thee to marry." + +"For this very purpose am I come," broke in at this opportune moment +the silent sword-cutler; "I, as you will have already recognized by +my voice, am your neighbor, Master Palomo. I love Maria, and ask you +for her hand." + +"Lack-a-day, master, but your exterior is not very prepossessing. +Howbeit, if Maria doth accept you, I am content." + +"I," replied Maria, wholly abashed, and smoothing the false hair +(which then weighed upon her head and heart like a burden of five +hundred weight)--"I, so may God enlighten me, for I durst not venture +to reply." + +Palomo took her right hand without saying anything, and as he did so +Maria looked at the master's wrists, and observed the wristbands of +his shirt, neatly embroidered, and with some suspicion and beating of +her heart said to him: + +"If you wish to please me, good neighbor, tell me by what seamstress +is this work?" + +"It is the work," replied the master, jocularly, "the work of a pretty +maiden who for five years has toiled for my person, albeit she hath +not known it till now." + +"Now I perceive," said Maria, "how that all the women who have come to +give me linen to sew and embroider were sent by you, and that is why +they paid me more than is customary." + +The master did not reply, but he smiled and held out his arms to +Maria. Maria threw herself into them, embracing him very caressingly; +and Juan himself said to the two: + +"In good sooth, you are made one for the other." + +"By my troth, my beloved one," continued the sword-cutler after a +while, "if my countenance had only been more pleasing, I should not +have been silent towards you for so many long days, nor would I have +been content with, gazing at you from afar. I should have spoken to +you, you would have made me the confidant of your troubles, and I +would have given you the five hundred _maravedis_ for the cure of your +good father." + +And whispering softly into her ear, he added: "And then you would not +have passed that evil moment under the hands of the mayoress. But if +you fear that she may break the promise she made to you to keep +silence as to your cropped head, let us, if it please you, set out for +Seville, where nobody knows you, and thus--" + +"No more," exclaimed Maria, resolutely throwing on the ground the +hair, which Juan picked up all astonished. "Send this hair to the +mayoress, since it was for this and not for that of the dead woman +that she paid so dearly. For I, to cure myself of my vanity, now make +a vow, with your good permission, to go shorn all my life. Such +artificial adornments are little befitting to the wives of honest +burghers." + +"But rely upon it," replied the master-cutler, "that as soon as it is +known that you have no hair, the girls of the city, envious of your +beauty, will give you the nickname of _Mariquita the Bald_!" + +"They may do so," replied Maria, "and that they may see that I do not +care a fig for this or any other nickname, I swear to you that from +this day forth I will not suffer anybody to call me by another name +than _Mariquita the Bald_." + +This was the event that rendered so famous throughout all Castile the +beautiful daughter of good Juan Lanas, who in effect married Master +Palomo, and became one of the most honorable and prolific women of the +most illustrious city of Toledo. + + + + +THE LOVE OF CLOTILDE + +Armando Palacio Valdes + + +In the dressing-room of Clotilde, leading actress of one of the most +important theaters in the capital, there gathered every night about +half a dozen of her male friends. The reception lasted almost always +about as long as the performances; but it included a number of +parentheses. Whenever the actress, was obliged to change her costume +she would turn towards her visitors with a bewitching smile and +beseeching eyes: + +"Gentlemen, will you withdraw for one little moment?--not more than +one little moment." + +Thereupon they would all transfer themselves to the ante-room and +remain there patiently waiting. No, I am mistaken, not quite all, +because the youngest of them, a third year student in the School of +Medicine, would avail himself of the chance to take a turn in the +wings to stretch his legs and snatch a fugitive kiss or so. At all +events, the majority remained, either seated or pacing up and down, +until the moment when Clotilde would re-open her door and, putting out +her head, decked as queen or peasant girl, according to the part she +was playing, would call out: + +"Now you may come back, gentlemen. Have I been very long?" + +Don Jeronimo always lingered. He was the last to withdraw grumbling +and the first to return to the dressing-room. He was never able to +reconcile himself to that modest custom. And although he never allowed +himself to say so openly, yet in the depths of his secret thoughts he +regarded it as a lack of courtesy that he should be ejected from his +seat, merely because the silly child must change her dress,--he, who +for thirty years had passed his life behind the scenes and had been on +intimate terms with every actor and actress, ancient and modern! + +He was fifty-four years of age and had been attached to the Ministry +of Foreign Affairs ever since he was four-and-twenty. Each successive +government had regarded him as one of the indispensable wheels in the +machinery of colonial administration. Furthermore, he was a bachelor +and living at the mercy of his landlady. It was said that in his youth +he once wrote a play which won him nothing but hisses and free entry +for life behind the scenes of the theaters. Whether resigned or not to +the verdict of the public, he ceased to write plays and assumed +instead the nobler role of patron to unrecognized authors and artists +and to ruined managers. + +Any youth from the provinces who arrived in Madrid with a drama in his +pocket could take no surer road to seeing it produced than that which +led to the home of Don Jeronimo. One and all, he received them with +open arms, the good and the bad alike. There is no denying that, +since he was rather brusque in his ways, he never spared the young +authors who asked his advice and read him their productions, but +criticized vigorously, even to the verge of insult: "This whole +episode is sheer nonsense; spill your ink-well on it!" "Why, look +here, for the love of heaven! How do you suppose that a man who is on +the point of committing murder is going to stand there for sixteen +seconds, without drawing his breath?" "Lord, what tommyrot! Platonic +love for a woman of that class! You must have tumbled out of the nest +unfledged, my lad!" + +But anyone possessed of a little tact refused to take offense, but +went calmly on and ended by intrusting his manuscript to the hands of +Don Jeronimo. And he could rest assured that his drama would be +produced. The veteran of the greenrooms exercised a strong influence, +akin to intimidation, over managers and actors alike; when he was +displeased, he gave his tongue free rein; if a play had been hissed, +he would protest, boiling with rage, against the public verdict, and +would continue to support the author more stanchly than ever. If on +the contrary it scored a hit, he merely kept silent and smiled +ecstatically, but never sought out the successful author in order to +congratulate him. And if the latter should complain of his +indifference, his answer was: + +"Now that you have shown that you can use your wings, will you please, +my friend, will you please leave me free to succor some other poor +fellow?" + +His private life offered little of special interest. Every night, +upon leaving the theater, he betook himself to the _Cafe Habanero_, +where he habitually consumed a beefsteak, together with a small +measure of beer. And, according to a certain friend, who had watched +him repeatedly, he always managed his repast so artfully as to finish, +at one and the same time, the last mouthful of meat, the last fragment +of bread, and the last draught of beer. + +On this particular night the little gathering was unwontedly animated. +The actress's friends indulged more freely than usual in gossip and +laughter. Don Jeronimo, muffled closely in his cape (one of his +privileges), lounging at ease in the big corner chair, and with his +inevitable cigar between his teeth (another special privilege), was +giving utterance to rare and racy stories, which from time to time +caused his hearers to cast a glance in the direction of Clotilde and +brought a slightly heightened color to the latter's cheeks. + +Don Jeronimo himself took no notice of this; he had first known her as +such a mere child that he considered he had the right to dispense with +certain courtesies that are due to ladies,--assuming that in the whole +course of his life he had ever shown them to any woman, which is very +doubtful. He had met her first as a mere child and had opened the way +for her to the stage. At the time that he ran across her, she was +living wretchedly and trying to learn the art of making artificial +flowers. Today, thanks to her talent, she earned enough to keep her +mother and sisters in comfort. + +Clotilde's attraction lay in her charm of manner rather than her +beauty. Her complexion was olive, her eyes large and black, the best +of all her features; her mouth somewhat big, but with bright red lips +and admirably even teeth. Tonight she was costumed as a lady of the +time of Louis XV, with powdered hair, which was marvelously becoming +to her. She took almost no part in the conversation, but seemed +satisfied to be merely a listener, constantly turning her serene gaze +from one speaker to another, and often answering only with a smile +when they addressed her. + +All at once there came the voice of the call-boy: + +"Senorita Clotilde, if you please--" + +"Coming," she answered, rising. + +She crossed over to the mirror, gave a few final touches to her brows +and lashes with a pencil, adjusted with somewhat nervous fingers the +coils of her hair, the cross of brilliants which she wore at her +throat, and the folds of her dress. Her friends became for the moment +silent and abstractedly watched these last preparations. + +"Good-by for the present, gentlemen." And she left the dressing-room, +followed by her maid, carefully bearing her train, a magnificent train +of cream-colored satin. + +"She grows lovelier every day, Clotilde does," said the medical +student, allowing an imperceptible sigh to escape him. + +Don Jeronimo took an enormous pull at his cigar, and instantly became +enveloped in a cloud of smoke. For this reason no one observed the +smile of triumph with which he received the medical student's remark. + +"I agree with you that she grows prettier every day," said another of +the visitors. "But it seems to me that her disposition has been +undergoing a big change for some time back. You, my boy, have not +known her as long as we have. She used to be a fascinating talker, so +merry, so full of spirits! No one could ever remain out of temper in +her company. But now I find her grave and sad almost all the time." + +"It's a fact that I have wondered at the melancholy look in her eyes." + +Don Jeronimo took another enormous pull at his cigar. No one saw the +swift flare of anger that passed over his face. + +"Changes like that, my boy, have only one cause, and that is love." + +"Was she engaged?" + +"Precisely,--Don Jeronimo knows the story well." + +"Yes, and I am going to tell it to you," said the one referred to, +from the depths of his cloak. "Though you may believe me that it is no +pleasant task to relate such follies. But it concerns a girl whom we +all of us love, and whatever affects her ought to interest us. + +"Some three years ago a young man, faultlessly dressed and with the +manuscript of a play under his arm, called upon the director of this +theater. Now there is nothing in the world more impressive and +awe-inspiring than a well-dressed young man who carries the manuscript +of a play under his arm. The director did his best to dodge him, and +held him off with a number of adroit moves; but he was finally +cornered, all the same. In other words, the young man invited him to +breakfast one day, enticing him with the seductive prospect of several +dozen oysters, washed down with abundant Sauterne, and for dessert he +shot off his play at close range. + +"As it turned out, the play was no good. Pepe did what you know one +does in such cases: he expressed deep admiration for the +versification, he said 'bravo!' over certain obscurely phrased +thoughts, and finally he recommended a few changes in the second act, +after which the work would be unexceptionable. + +"The unwary poet returned home greatly pleased, and set to work +zealously upon the revision. At the end of a fortnight he returned for +another interview with Pepe; this time the latter found the first act +somewhat slow, and advised him at any cost to put more action into it +and make it somewhat shorter. It took the poet a month to rewrite the +first act. When he once more presented himself, the director, while +expressing great admiration for the excellence of the verse and for +some of the ideas, manifested some doubt as to whether the play was +_actable_. That it was _literary_, he had none whatever; on the +contrary, it seemed to him that from this point of view it compared +favorably with the best of Ayala's plays,--but actable, really +actable, ah! that was another matter!" + +"What is the difference, Don Jeronimo? I don't understand." + +"Then I will explain, my boy. We, who are behind the scenes, mean by +_actable_ a good play, and by _literary_ a bad one." + +"I see!" + +"After expressing these doubts, the manager concluded by recommending +certain additional alterations in the third act. + +"At last the poet understood,--a really marvelous occurrence, because +poets, who understand everything else and can tell you why the condor +flies so high, who soar to the skies and descend into the abyss and +penetrate the secret thoughts of all created things, are not capable +of realizing that there are times when their works do not please those +who hear them. Our young man, whom we will call Inocencio, received +back his manuscript somewhat peevishly, and for a while nothing +further was heard of him. But at last, doubtless after a good deal of +profound meditation, he presented himself on a certain morning at the +home of Clotilde. I hardly need tell you that he carried his +manuscript under his arm. + +"He waited patiently in the parlor while our young friend completed +her toilet, and when at last she made her appearance, she saw before +her a blushing and confused young man, who nevertheless was +pleasant-mannered and fashionably dressed, and who besought with +stammering lips that she would do him the favor of listening while he +read his play. Women, you must know, find a singular pleasure in +playing the role of patroness, especially in regard to young men of +pleasant manners and fashionable dress. So that it is not at all +surprising that Clotilde listened patiently to the play and even +pronounced it acceptable. + +"The young man intrusted himself wholly to her guidance, deposited his +manuscript in her pretty hands, as though it were a new-born child, +and she received it like a doting mother, took it under her +protection, and promised to watch over its precious existence and +introduce it to the world. The young man declared that such an +intention was worthy of the noble heart whose fame had already reached +his ears. Clotilde replied that it was no kindness on her part to work +to have the play produced, but only an act of justice. The young man +said that this idea was exceedingly flattering, because Clotilde's +great talent and the accuracy of her judgments were well known to +everyone, but that he dared not build upon such an illusion. Clotilde +declared that there were many unmerited reputations in the world, and +one of them was hers, but that on this occasion she felt that she was +on firm ground. + +"The young man replied that when the river roars the water toils, and +that when the whole world unites in admiring not only the exceptional +beauty and artistic inspiration of a certain person, but also her +splendid genius and brilliant intellect, it was necessary to bow one's +head. Clotilde said that on this occasion she refused to bow hers, +because she was quite convinced that the world was greatly mistaken +regarding what it called her talent, which was nothing more nor less +than pure instinct. The young man cried out to heaven against such +mystification, for which there was absolutely no excuse. Then, +promptly calming down, he declared himself profoundly moved by the +modesty of his patroness, and swore by all the saints in heaven that +he never had met her equal,--with the result that the manuscript was +momentarily gaining ground in the heart of our sympathetic friend, and +that the young man, overwhelmed with emotion, took his leave of her +until the following day. + +"On the following day, Clotilde called upon the manager, and by +threatening to break her contract, forced from him a promise to +produce Inocencio's play as soon as possible. That same afternoon, the +poet expressed his thanks to his patroness and promptly took her into +his confidence. He belonged to a distinguished provincial family, +although without great financial resources. It was in the hope of +bettering them that he had come to Madrid, relying solely upon his +genius. In his native town they said that he had talent, and that if +the verses which he had contributed to the _Tagus Echo_ had been +published in Madrid, he would be talked of as a second Nunez de Arce y +Grilo. He did not know whether that was so; but he felt that his heart +was full of noble sentiments, and he loved the theater better than the +apple of his eye. Would he succeed in being an Ayala or a Tamayo? +Would he be rejected by the public? It was an insoluble mystery to +him. + +"During this interview, Clotilde became convinced of two very +important things: namely, that Inocencio possessed a talent so great +that his head could scarcely hold it, and secondly, that there was no +one else in all Madrid who could wear so conspicuous a necktie with +such charming effect. I need not tell you that their confidential +interviews increased in frequency, and that consequently Clotilde came +day by day more completely under the fascinating influence of that +supernatural necktie. In the end, she yielded herself vanquished, and +surrendered herself to it, bound hand and foot. The necktie deigned to +raise her from the ground and grant her the favor of its affection." + +"What about a necktie?" asked one of the company, who had been +nodding. + +Don Jeronimo took an immense, an infernal pull at his cigar, in +testimony of his annoyance, then proceeded with no further notice: + +"Meanwhile the rehearsals of Inocencio's play had begun. It was +called, if I am not mistaken, _Stooping to Conquer_,--excuse me, no, I +believe it was just the reverse, _Conquering to Stoop_. Well, at all +events, it contained a participle and an infinitive. Before long I +became aware that lover-like relations had been established between +our fair friend and the author, and since, as a matter of fact, even +if Inocencio was a bad poet, as Pepe insisted, he seemed like a good +lad, I was very glad it had happened and I helped it along as much as +I could. Clotilde confided in me, and declared that she was +desperately in love; that her ambitions no longer had anything to do +with the art of the stage, which seemed to her an unbearable slavery; +that her ideal was to live tranquilly, even if it were in a garret, +united to the man whom she adored; that woman was born to be the +guardian angel of the fireside, and not to divert the public, and +that she herself would rather be queen of a humble little apartment +illuminated with love, than to receive all the applause in the world. +In short, gentlemen, our young friend was living in the midst of an +idyllic dream. + +"Inocencio was, to all appearance, no less in love than she. I +frequently encountered them walking through the unfrequented by-paths +of the Retiro, at a respectable distance from her mother, who lingered +opportunely to examine the first opening buds of flowers or some +curious insect. Mothers, at this critical period of courtship, are +under an obligation to be admirers of the works of nature. The young +pair of turtle-doves would pause when they caught sight of me and +greet me blushingly. I cannot conceal from you that, however much I +felt the loss to art, I was delighted that Clotilde was going to be +married. A woman always needs the protection of a man. And there is no +question that so far as outward appearance went, they were worthy of +one another. Inocencio certainly was a most attractive young fellow. + +"At the theater they talked of nothing else than of this wedding, +which was still in the bud. Everybody was delighted, because Clotilde +is the only actress, since the beginning of the world, who took it +into her head to attempt what until now was regarded as impossible, to +make herself beloved by her companions. + +"I observed, nevertheless,--for you know that I am an observant +person: it is the only quality that I possess, that of observation, a +thing to which the authors of today attach no importance. Today, in +the drama, everything is so much dried leaves, a lot of moonshine, +which, they let filter down through the foliage of the trees, a lot of +description of dawn and twilight, and a lot of other similar +pastry-shop stuff. That's all there is to it! When any fledgling +author comes to me with nonsense of that sort, I say to him: 'Get down +to the facts! Get down to the facts!' The facts are the drama, which +doesn't exist in the great part of the above-mentioned." + +"Aren't you exciting yourself, Don Jeronimo?" + +"Well, as I was telling you, I observed that as the rehearsals +progressed the ascendency of Inocencio over our young friend +increased. The tone in which he addressed her was no longer the humble +and courteous tone of earlier days; he corrected her frequently in her +manner of delivery, he dictated the attitudes and gestures which she +should adopt, and sometimes, when the actress did not quite understand +his wishes, he allowed himself to address her publicly in rather +severe terms, and the way he looked at her was severer still. Our poet +was already thundering and lightning like a true lord and master. + +"Clotilde accepted it with good grace. She, who had always been so +haughty, even towards the most distinguished authors, stretched out +and shrank back like soft wax in the hands of that insignificant +jackanapes. You ought to have seen the humility with which she +accepted his suggestions, and the distress which his censures caused +her. All the time that the rehearsal lasted she kept her eyes steadily +fixed upon him, watching like a submissive slave to catch the wishes +of her master. The poet, lolling at ease in an arm-chair, with a +brazier of hot coals before him, directed the action in as dictatorial +a manner as either Gracia Gutierrez or Ayala could have done. A mere +glance from him sufficed to make Clotilde flush crimson or turn pale. +The other actors made no protest, out of consideration for her. When +she had finished her scene she came eagerly to take her seat beside +her betrothed, who sometimes deigned to welcome her with a haughty +smile, and at other times with an Olympian indifference. I, meanwhile, +looked on, scandalized. + +"On one occasion I came upon them from behind, and overheard what they +were saying. Clotilde was speaking, and hotly maintaining that +Inocencio's _Stooping to Conquer_ or _Conquering to Stoop_ was better +than _A New Drama_. The young man protested feebly. On another +occasion they were speaking of their future union. Clotilde was +picturing in impassioned phrases the nook to which they would go to +hide their happiness; some lofty spot on the hills of Salamanca, a +dear little nest, bathed in sunlight, where Inocencio could work in +his private study, writing plays, while she sat by his side and +embroidered in absolute silence. When he was tired they could talk for +a while, to let him rest, and then she would give him a kiss and go +back again to her work. In the evening they would go out, arm in arm, +to take a short walk, and then home again. But no more of the +theater; she abhorred it with all her soul. In the spring they would +go every morning to take a walk in the Retiro and take chocolate under +the trees; in the summer they would spend a month or two in +Inocencio's birthplace, so as to bring back from the country a supply +of good color and health for the coming winter. + +"The description of this tender idyl, which, even if I am a confirmed +bachelor, set my heart beating within my breast, produced no other +effect upon the new author than an insolent somnolence which would not +disappear until he suddenly raised his imperious voice to admonish +some one of the actors. + +"At last the opening night arrived. We were all anxious to see the +result. The prevailing opinion was that the play offered little +novelty; but since Clotilde had staked her whole soul upon the +outcome, a big success was predicted. At the dress rehearsal our young +friend had achieved genuine prodigies. There was a moment when the few +of us whom curiosity had brought to witness it, rose to our feet +electrified, convulsed, making a most unseemly outcry. You have no +conception how marvelously she rendered her part. Then and there, all +of a sudden, an idea entered my head. Recalling all my observations of +Clotilde's love affair, I felt convinced, in view of the evidence, +that Inocencio had had no other purpose in winning her love than to +assure an exceptional interpretation of the leading _role_ of his +play, and a flattering outcome of his venture. I decided not to +communicate my suspicions to anyone. I kept silent and hoped, but +there is no doubt that from that time on the young man was decidedly +out of favor with me. + +"The noise which Inocencio's friends had been making in regard to the +theme of his play, the fact that Clotilde had chosen it for her +benefit performance, and the wide-spread rumor that the celebrated +actress was going to win a signal triumph in it, all worked together +to help the speculators to dispose of every seat in the house at +fabulous prices. I know a marquis who paid eleven _duros_ for two +orchestra stalls. This room where we are now sitting was filled, just +as it is annually, with flowers and presents; it was impossible to +move about in the midst of such a conglomeration of porcelain, books +with costly bindings, ebony work-boxes, picture-frames, and no end of +other fancy trifles. + +"The audience room was unusually brilliant. The most resplendent +ladies, the men most distinguished in politics, literature, and +finance; in short, the _high life_, as the phrase goes, was all there. +But even more brilliant and more radiant was Inocencio himself; +radiant with glory and happiness, and graciously receiving the crowds +of visitors who came to see the presents, dictating orders to the +call-boys and scene-shifters regarding the proper setting of the +scene, and multiplying his smiles and hand-shakings to the point of +infinity. Clotilde also seemed more beautiful than ever, and her +expressive face revealed the tender emotion which possessed her, as +well as her deep anxiety to win laurels for her future husband. + +"The curtain arose and everyone hurried to occupy his seat. In the +wings there was no one save the author and three or four of his +friends. The opening scenes were received as usual with indifference; +the following ones with a little more cordiality; the versification +was fluent and polished, and, as you know, the public appreciates +sugar-coated phrases. At last the moment arrived for Clotilde's +entrance, and a faint murmur of curiosity and expectation ran through +the audience. She spoke her lines discreetly, but without much warmth; +it was easy to see that she was afraid. The curtain fell in a dead +silence. + +"Immediately the waiting-room and passage-way were filled by +Inocencio's friends, who came eagerly to tell him that this first +performance of his play was a great success,--but what was the matter +with Clotilde? She hardly put any movement into her part,--and she was +usually so much alive, so tremendously forceful! Our young friend +acknowledged that, as a matter of fact, she had felt badly scared, and +that this had hampered her seriously. The author, greatly alarmed for +the fate of his work, endeavored to persuade her that there was +nothing to be afraid of, that all she had to do was to be herself, and +that she was not to think of him at all while she spoke her lines. + +"'I can't help it,' insisted Clotilde, 'all the time that I am +speaking I keep thinking that you are the author, and imagining that +the play is not going to succeed, and it makes me so frightened.' + +"Inocencio was in despair; he tried entreaties, advice, arguments, he +embraced her without caring who saw him; he tried to infuse courage +into her by appealing to her vanity as an artist; in short, he did +everything imaginable to save his play. + +"The second act began. Clotilde had a few pathetic scenes. In the +beginning there was a certain slight disturbance in the audience, and +this sufficed to disconcert her completely, and to make her acting +irremediably bad, worse than she had ever acted in her whole life. A +good deal of coughing was heard, and some loud murmurs of impatience. +At the end of that second act a few indiscreet friends tried to +applaud, but the audience drowned them out with an immense and +terrifying series of hisses. The author, who was standing by my side, +pale as death, relieved his feelings with a flood of coarse words, and +made his way to Pepe's room, which faces that of Clotilde, and where +his friends consoled him, casting the whole blame for the failure upon +her, and inflaming more and more the anger surging in his heart. +Meanwhile, our friend was utterly crushed and overcome, and +continually calling for her Inocencio. In order to spare her further +trouble, I told her that the author had accepted the situation +resignedly, and had left the theater to get a breath of air. The +unhappy girl bitterly blamed herself, taking the entire failure on her +own shoulders. + +"The curtain rose for the third act; and we all gathered anxiously at +the wings. Clotilde, by a powerful effort of will, showed herself at +first more self-possessed than in the previous acts, but the audience +was in a mood to have some sport, and nothing could have made them +take the play seriously. When the public once scents a trail, it is +like a wild beast that smells blood; there is no way of heading it +off, and you have got to let it have its flesh at any cost. And there +is no doubt that on this occasion it gorged itself full. Coughs, +laughter, sneezes, stampings, hisses,--there was a little of +everything. Tears sprang to our poor friend's eyes, and she seemed +upon the point of fainting. When the curtain finally fell her eyes +sought on all sides for her lover, but he had disappeared. In her +dressing-room, where I followed her, she sobbed, groaned, gave way to +despair, called herself a fool, said that she was going to hire +herself out on some farm to tend the geese and more to the same +effect. It cost me some hard work to calm her down, but at last I +succeeded so that she sank into a sort of silent lethargy. In the +sorrow which her eyes revealed I saw that what tormented her horribly +was the absence of Inocencio. + +"The door of the room was suddenly flung open. The defeated poet made +his appearance; he was quite pale but apparently calm. Nevertheless, I +perceived at the first glance that his calmness was assumed, and that +the smile which contracted his lips closely resembled that of a +condemned man who wishes to die bravely. + +"A gleam of joy illuminated Clotilde's face. She rose swiftly and +flung her arms around his neck, saying in a broken voice: + +"'I have ruined you, my poor Inocencio, I have ruined you! How +generous you are! But listen, I swear to you, by the memory of my +father, that I will atone for the humiliation you have just suffered.' + +"'There is no need for you to atone, my dear girl,' replied the poet, +in a soft tone under which a disdainful anger could be felt, 'my +family has not achieved its illustrious name through the intercession +of any actor. From this day henceforth I gladly renounce the theater +and all that is connected with it. Accordingly,--I wish you good-day.' +And, unclasping the arms that imprisoned his neck, and smiling +sarcastically, he retreated a few steps and took his leave. Clotilde +gazed at him in a stupor, then fell unconscious on the divan. + +"At the sight of her in such a state I felt my blood take fire, and I +followed the young man out. I overtook him near the stairs, and, +grasping him by the wrist, I said to him: + +"'A word with you. The first thing that a man has to be, before he can +be a poet, is a gentleman,--and that is something you are not. Your +play was hissed because it lacks the same thing that you lack,--and +that is a heart. Here, sir, is my card.'" + +"And did you not send him your seconds, Don Jeronimo?" inquired the +medical student. + +"Silence, silence!" exclaimed another of the group, "here is +Clotilde." + +And, in fact, the charming actress at that moment appeared in the +doorway, and her large and sad black eyes, all the more beautiful +beneath her white Louis XV coiffure, smiled tenderly upon her +faithful friends. + + + + +CAPTAIN VENENO'S PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Pedro Antonio de Alarcon + + +"Great heavens! What a woman!" cried the captain, and stamped with +fury. "Not without reason have I been trembling and in fear of her +from the first time I saw her! It must have been a warning of fate +that I stopped playing _ecarte_ with her. It was also a bad omen that +I passed so many sleepless nights. Was there ever mortal in a worse +perplexity than I am? How can I leave her alone without a protector, +loving her, as I do, more than my own life? And, on the other hand, +how can I marry her, after all my declaimings against marriage?" + +Then turning to Augustias--"What would they say of me in the club? +What would people say of me, if they met me in the street with a woman +on my arm, or if they found me at home, just about to feed a child in +swaddling clothes? I--to have children? To worry about them? To live +in eternal fear that they might fall sick or die? Augustias, believe +me, as true as there is a God above us, I am absolutely unfit for it! +I should behave in such a way that after a short while you would call +upon heaven either to be divorced or to become a widow. Listen to my +advice: do not marry me, even if I ask you." + +"What a strange creature you are," said the young woman, without +allowing herself to be at all discomposed, and sitting very erect in +her chair. "All that you are only telling to yourself! From what do +you conclude that I wish to be married to you; that I would accept +your offer, and that I should not prefer living by myself, even if I +had to work day and night, as so many girls do who are orphans?" + +"How do I come to that conclusion?" answered the captain with the +greatest candor. "Because it cannot be otherwise. Because we love each +other. Because we are drawn to each other. Because a man such as I, +and a woman such as you, cannot live in any other way! Do you suppose +I do not understand that? Don't you suppose I have reflected on it +before now? Do you think I am indifferent in your good name and +reputation? I have spoken plainly in order to speak, in order to fly +from my own conviction, in order to examine whether I can escape from +this terrible dilemma which is robbing me of my sleep, and whether I +can possibly find an expedient so that I need not marry you--to do +which I shall finally be compelled, if you stand by your resolve to +make your way alone!" + +"Alone! Alone!" repeated Augustias, roguishly. "And why not with a +worthier companion? Who tells you that I shall not some day meet a man +whom I like, and who is not afraid to marry me?" + +"Augustias! let us skip that!" growled the captain, his face turning +scarlet. + +"And why should we not talk about it?" + +"Let us pass over that, and let me say, at the same time, that I will +murder the man who dares to ask for your hand. But it is madness on +my part to be angry without any reason. I am not so dull as not to see +how we two stand. Shall I tell you? We love each other. Do not tell me +I am mistaken! That would be lying. And here is the proof: if you did +not love me, I, too, should not love you! Let us try to meet one +another halfway. I ask for a delay of ten years. When I shall have +completed my half century, and when, a feeble old man, I shall have +become familiar with the idea of slavery, then we will marry without +anyone knowing about it. We will leave Madrid, and go to the country, +where we shall have no spectators, where there will be nobody to make +fun of me. But until this happens, please take half of my income +secretly, and without any human soul ever knowing anything about it. +You continue to live here, and I remain in my house. We will see each +other, but only in the presence of witnesses--for instance, in +society. We will write to each other every day. So as not to endanger +your good name, I will never pass through this street, and on Memorial +Day only we will go to the cemetery together with Rosa." + +Augustias could not but smile at the last proposal of the good +captain, and her smile was not mocking, but contented and happy, as if +some cherished hope had dawned in her heart, as if it were the first +ray of the sun of happiness which was about to rise in her heaven! But +being a woman--though as brave and free from artifices as few of +them--she yet managed to subdue the signs of joy rising within her. +She acted as if she cherished not the slightest hope, and said with a +distant coolness which is usually the special and genuine sign of +chaste reserve: + +"You make yourself ridiculous with your peculiar conditions. You +stipulate for the gift of an engagement-ring, for which nobody has yet +asked you." + +"I know still another way out--for a compromise, but that is really +the last one. Do you fully understand, my young lady from Aragon? It +is the last way out, which a man, also from Aragon, begs leave to +explain to you." + +She turned her head and looked straight into his eyes, with an +expression indescribably earnest, captivating, quiet, and full of +expectation. + +The captain had never seen her features so beautiful and expressive; +at that moment she looked to him like a queen. + +"Augustias," said, or rather stammered, this brave soldier, who had +been under fire a hundred times, and who had made such a deep +impression on the young girl through his charging under a rain of +bullets like a lion, "I have the honor to ask for your hand on one +certain, essential, unchangeable condition. Tomorrow morning--today--a +soon as the papers are in order--as quickly as possible. I can live +without you no longer!" + +The glances of the young girl became milder, and she rewarded him for +his decided heroism with a tender and bewitching smile. + +"But I repeat that it is on one condition," the bold warrior hastened +to repeat, feeling that Augustias's glances made him confused and +weak. + +"On what condition?" asked the young girl, turning fully round, and +now holding him under the witchery of her sparkling black eyes. + +"On the condition," he stammered, "that, in case we have children, we +send them to the orphanage. I mean--on this point I will never yield. +Well, do you consent? For heaven's sake, say yes!" + +"Why should I not consent to it, Captain Veneno?" answered Augustias, +with a peal of laughter. "You shall take them there yourself, or, +better still, we both of us will take them there. And we will give +them up without kissing them, or anything else! Don't you think we +shall take them there?" + +Thus spoke Augustias, and looked at the captain with exquisite joy in +her eyes. The good captain thought he would die of happiness; a flood +of tears burst from his eyes; he folded the blushing girl in his arms, +and said: + +"So I am lost?" + +"Irretrievably lost, Captain Veneno," answered Augustias. + + * * * * * + +One morning in May, 1852--that is, four years after the scene just +described--a friend of mine, who told me this story, stopped his horse +in front of a mansion on San Francisco Avenue, in Madrid; he threw the +reins to his groom, and asked the long-coated footman who met him at +the door: + +"Is your master at home?" + +"If your honor will be good enough to walk upstairs, you will find +him in the library. His excellency does not like to have visitors +announced. Everybody can go up to him directly." + +"Fortunately I know the house thoroughly," said the stranger to +himself, while he mounted the stairs. "In the library! Well, well, who +would have thought of Captain Veneno ever taking to the sciences?" + +Wandering through the rooms, the visitor met another servant, who +repeated, "The master is in the library." And at last he came to the +door of the room in question, opened it quickly, and stood, almost +turned to stone for astonishment, before the remarkable group which it +offered to his view. + +In the middle of the room, on the carpet which covered the floor, a +man was crawling on all-fours. On his back rode a little fellow about +three years old, who was kicking the man's sides with his heels. +Another small boy, who might have been a year and a half old, stood in +front of the man's head, and had evidently been tumbling his hair. One +hand held the father's neckerchief, and the little fellow was tugging +at it as if it had been a halter, shouting with delight in his merry +child's voice: + +"Gee up, donkey! Gee up!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's First Love (Little Blue Book #1195), by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST LOVE (LITTLE BLUE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 15610.txt or 15610.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/1/15610/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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