“During our promenade Don Calixto talked to me of the immense good he
has done for the town and of the ingratitude he constantly receives for
it.
“While I listened, I recalled a little periodical in Madrid which had no
other object than to furnish bombs at reasonable prices, and which said,
speaking of a manufacturer in Catalonia: ‘Señor So-and-so is the most
powerful boss in the province of Tarragona, and even at that there are
those who dispute his bossdom.’
“Don Calixto is astonished that when he has done the Castrians the
honour to make them loans at eighty or ninety percent, they are not fond
of him. After the garden we saw the house; I won’t tell you anything
about it, I don’t want you to accuse me again of being a Ruskinian.
“When we reached the dining-room Don Calixto said: ‘I am going to
present you to my family.’
“Thereupon, entrance, ceremonies, bows on my part, smiles... _toute
la lyre_. Don Calixto’s wife is an insignificant fat woman; the two
daughters insipid, ungainly, not at all pretty; and with them was a
little girl of about fifteen or sixteen, a niece of Don Calixto’s, a
veritable little devil, named Amparo. This Amparo is a tiny, flat-faced
creature, with black eyes, and extraordinarily vivacious and
mischievous. During dinner I succeeded in irritating the child.
“I talked gravely with Don Calixto and his wife and daughters about
Madrid, about the theatrical companies that come to this town, about
their acquaintances at the Capital.
“The child interrupted us, bringing us the cat and putting a little bow
on him, and then making him walk on the key-board of the piano.
“At half-past one we went to the dining-room. Dinner was kilometres
long; and the conversation turned on Rome and Paris. Don Calixto drank
more and more, I, too; and at the end of the meal there was a bit of
toasting, from which my political intentions were made manifest.
“The elder daughter, whose name is Adela, asked me if I liked music. I
told her yes, almost closing my eyes, as if deliriously, and we went
into the drawing-room. Without paying attention, I listened, during
the horrors of digestion, to a number of sonatas, now and then saying:
‘Magnificent! How wonderful that is!’
“The father was enchanted, the mother enchanted, the sister likewise;
the little girl was the one who stared at me with questioning black
eyes. She must have been thinking: ‘What species of bird is this?’ I
believe the damned child realized that I was acting a comedy.
“About four the ladies and I went out into the garden. Don Calixto has
the habit of taking an afternoon nap, and he left us. I succeeded in
bringing myself to, in the open air. Don Calixto’s wife showed me over
an abandoned part of the house, in which there is an old kitchen as big
as a cathedral, with a stone chimney like a high altar, with the arms
of the Dukes of Castro. We chatted, I was very pleasant to the mother,
courteous to the daughters, and coldly indifferent with the little
niece. I was bored, after having exhausted all subjects of conversation,
when Don Calixto reappeared and carried me off to his office.
“The conference was important; he explained the situation of the
Conservative forces of the district to me. These forces are represented,
principally, by three men: Don Calixto, a Señor Don Platón, and a friar.
Don Calixto represents the modern Conservative tendency and is, let us
say, the Cánovas of the district; with him are the rich members of the
Casino, the superior judge, the doctors, the great proprietors, etc.
Don Platón Peribáñez, a silversmith in the Calle Mayor, represents the
middle-class Conservatives; his people are less showy, but more in
earnest and better disciplined; this Platonian or Platonic party is made
up of chandlers, silversmiths, small merchants, and the poor priests.
The friar, who represents the third Conservative nucleus, is Father
Martin Lafuerza. Father Martin is prior of the Franciscan monastery,
which was established here after the Order was expelled from Filinas.
“Father Martin is an Ultramontanist up to the eyes. He directs priests,
friars, nuns, sisters, and is the absolute master of a town nearby
called Cidones, where the women are very pious.
“Despite their piety, the reputation of those ladies cannot be very
good, because there is a proverb, certainly not very gallant: ‘Don’t get
either a wife or a mule at Cidones; neither a wife nor a mule nor a pig
at Griñón.’
“Opposed to these three Conservative nuclei are the friends of the
present Deputy, who amount to no more than the official element, which
is always on the ruling side, and a small guerilla band that meets in
the Workingmen’s Casino, and is composed principally of a Republican
bookseller, an apothecary who invents explosives, also Republican, an
anarchist doctor, a free-thinking weaver, and an innkeeper whom they
call Furibis, who is also a smuggler and a man with hair on his chest.”
_DON PLATÓN PERIBÁÑEZ_
“After having given me these data, Don Calixto told me that by counting
on Señor Peribáñez, the election was almost sure; and since the quicker
things go the better, he proposed that we should go to see him, and I
immediately agreed.
“Don Platón Peribáñez has a silver-shop fitted up in the old style; a
small show-window, full of rattles, Moorish anklets, necklaces, little
crosses, et cetera; a narrow, dark shop, then a long passage, and at the
rear, a workroom with a window on a court.
“As his assistant in the silver-shop, Don Platón has a boy who is a
nonsuch. I believe that if you took him to London and exhibited him,
saying beforehand: ‘Bear in mind, gentlemen, that this is not a monkey
or an anthropoid, but a man,’ you would rake in a mad amount of pounds
sterling.
“We went into Don Platón’s little shop, we asked the young macaco for
him, and we passed on into the workshop.
“Señor Peribáñez is a man of medium stature, dressed in black, with a
trimmed white beard, grey eyes, and modest manners. He speaks coldly,
thinks closely of what he is saying; he has a monotonous, slow voice,
and nothing escapes him.
“Don Calixto presented me to him; the silversmith gave me his hand as if
with a certain repugnance, and the boss explained who I was and what I
was after.
“Don Platón said that he could not reply categorically without
consulting with his friends and with Father Martín. The Father has other
candidates; one the Duke of Castro himself; and the other a rich farmer
of the town.
“The Duke of Castro presents no other drawback than that he has been
arrested in Paris for an insignificant swindle he has committed; but
it seems that a rich Cuban wants to get him out of his difficulties on
condition that he will marry his daughter.
“If he comes out of jail and gets married, then they will nominate him
as Deputy from here.
“I said to Don Platón, in case the worthy Duke does not come out of
jail, would he have difficulties over my being his candidate. He replied
that I am very young, and after many circumlocutions he said flatly that
he doesn’t know if I would be accepted or not as a candidate by his
followers; but in case I were, the conditions precedent would be: first,
that I would not interfere in any way in the affairs of the district,
which would be ventilated in the town, as previously; secondly, that I
should bear the costs of the election, which would amount approximately
to some ten thousand pesetas.
“Don Calixto looked at me questioningly, and I smiled in a way to make
it understood that I agreed, and after extracting a promise from Don
Platón that he will give us a definite answer this week, we took leave
of him and went to the Casino.
“There I was introduced to the judge, an Andalusian who has a spotless
reputation for veniality, and to the mayor, who is a rich farmer; and
the most important persons of the town being thus gathered at one table,
we chatted about politics, women, and gambling.
“I told them a number of tales; I told them that I once lost ten
thousand dollars at Monte Carlo, playing with two Russian princes and a
Yankee millionairess; I talked to them about the mysteries and crimes of
gambling houses and of those great centres of pleasure, and I left them
speechless. At half-past nine, with a terrible headache, I came back
here. I think I have not lost a day, eh?”
“No! The devil! What speed!” exclaimed Alzugaray.
“But you are not eating any supper. Don’t you intend to take anything?”
“No. I am going to see if I can sleep. Listen, day after tomorrow we are
both invited to dine at Don Calixto’s.”
“Me, too?”
“Yes; I told them that you are a rich tourist, and they want to know
you.”
“And what am I to do there?”
“You can study these people, as an entomologist studies insects. Listen,
it wouldn’t do any harm if you took a walk to that town near here, named
Cidones, to see if you can find out what sort of bird this Father Martin
is.”
“All right.”
“And if you don’t mind, go into that Republican bookseller’s shop, under
any pretext, and talk to him.”
“I will do so.”
“Then, till tomorrow!”
“You are going now?”
“Yes.”
“Goodnight, then.”
Cæsar left his room and marched off to sleep.