CHAPTER XVI THE MAN OF ACTION BEGINS TO MAKE HIMSELF KNOWN

QUENTIN got up late, ate his breakfast and wrote several letters to his friends in England. In the evening he looked through the amusement section of the paper and saw that there was to be an entertainment in the Café del Recreo.

He asked Palomares where this café was, and was told that it was on the Calle del Arco Real, a street that ran into Las Tendillas.

The constant irritation in Quentin’s mind troubled him so, that he calmly decided to get drunk.

“Tell me,” he said to the waiter after seating himself at a table in the café, “what refreshments have you?”

“We have currants, lemons, blackberries, and French ice-cream.”

“Fine! Bring me a bottle of cognac.”

The waiter brought his order, filled his glass, and was about to remove the bottle.

“No, no; leave it here.”

“Aren’t you going to see the show?” asked the waiter with obsequious familiarity. “They are giving La Isla de San Balandrán: it’s very amusing.”

“I’ll see.”

After Quentin had emptied several glasses, he began to feel heartened, and ready for any folly. At a near-by table several men were talking about an actress who took[172] the principal part in a musical comedy that had just been put on. One with a very loud voice was dragging the actress’ name through the mire.

This man was extremely fat; a kind of a sperm whale, with the bulging features of a dropsical patient, a shiny skin, and the voice of a eunuch. He had a microscopic nose that was lost between his two chubby cheeks, which were a pale yellow; his hatchet-shaped whiskers were so black that they seemed painted with ink; his stiff, bluish hair grew low on his forehead, with a peak above the eyebrows. He wore diamonds upon his bosom, rings upon his pudgy fingers, and, to cap his offensiveness, he was smoking a kilometric cigar with a huge band.

The bearing, the voice, the diamonds, the cigar, the waddling, and the laughter of that man set Quentin’s blood afire to such an extent, that rising and striking the table where the whale was talking to his friends, he shouted:

“Everything you say is a lie!”

“Are you the woman’s brother or husband?” inquired the obese gentleman, staring into space and stroking his black sideburns with his much bediamonded hand.

“I am nothing of hers,” replied Quentin; “I don’t know her, and I don’t want to know her; but I do know that everything you say is a lie.”

“Pay no attention to him,” said one of the fat man’s companions; “he’s drunk.”

“Well, he’d better look out, or I’ll strike him with my stick.”

“You’ll strike me with your stick!” exclaimed Quentin. “Ha ... ha ... ha!... But have you ever looked into a mirror?... You really are most repulsive, my friend![173]”

The fat man, before such an insult to his appearance, rose and endeavoured to reach Quentin, but his friends restrained him. Quentin quickly removed his coat and rolled up his sleeves, ready to box.

“Evohé! Evohé!” he thundered. “Come who will! One by one, two by two, every one against me!”

A thin, blond man with blue eyes and a golden beard, stepped up to him; not as though to fight, but with a smile.

“What do you want?” Quentin asked him rudely.

“Oh! Don’t you remember Paul Springer, the son of the Swiss watch-maker?”

“Is that you, Paul?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Because I should have liked it had it been the fat man or one of his friends, so I could have cut him open with my fist.”

“I see that you are just as crazy as ever.”

“I, crazy? I’m one of the few people on this planet in their right senses! Moreover, I have decided to become a man of action. Believe me!”

“I can’t believe anything of you now, my lad. What you ought to do is to put on your coat and go to bed. Come, I’ll go with you.”

Quentin assented, and went home with his friend.

“We’ll see each other again, won’t we?” said the Swiss.

“Yes.”

“Then, until another day.”

They took leave of each other. Quentin remained in his doorway.[174]

“I’m not going in,” he said to himself. “Am I not a man of action? Well, adelante! Where can I go? I’ll go and see Se?ora Patrocinio. I’ll take a few turns about here until my head is a little clearer....”

He knocked at the house in Los Tejares, and the door was immediately opened to him.

“Ah! Is it you?” said the old woman, as she lifted the candle to see who it was.

“Yes, it is I.”

“Come in.”

The old woman lit the lamp in the same room on the lower floor that Don Gil Sabadía and Quentin had occupied.

“What’s the matter?” asked Se?ora Patrocinio. “Do you need money?”

“No. Do you, too, wish to offend me?”

“No; I just wanted to give you some.”

“Thanks very much! You are the only person who takes any interest in me—why, I don’t know.... I have come to see you tonight because I am unhappy.”

“I know.... Rafaela is going to get married.”

“And how do you know that that is the reason for my unhappiness?”

“Nothing is secret from me. You liked her, but you will get over it soon. She was fond of you, too.”

“Do you think ...?”

“Yes; but the poor girl had a bad beginning in life, and does well not to get mixed up in adventures; for the majority of men aren’t even worth the trouble of looking in the face. Still, what her sweetheart did was disgraceful. Rafaela was brought up weakly,—too carefully guarded; then she began to grow quite happy, what with taking care of her mother and her betrothal.[175] Then her mother died; her father remarried immediately; in a few months it began to be rumoured that her family was on the verge of ruin, and her sweetheart skipped out. Think of it! The poor abandoned girl began to turn yellow, and thought she was going to die. I believe that she owes her cure to the trouble her younger sister gave her.”

“Yes; I understand that she has no faith in men. Probably I ought not to have paid any attention to the fact,” Quentin added ingenuously. “But won’t this Juan de Dios make her suffer?”

“No. He’s coarse, but good at heart. What are you going to do?”

“I! I don’t know. We live in such a contemptible epoch. If I had been born in Napoleon’s time! God! I’d either be dead by now or else on the road to a generalship.”

“Would you have enlisted with Napoleon?”

“Rather!”

“And would you have fought against your own country?”

“Against the whole world.”

“But not against Spain.”

“Especially against Spain. It would be pretty nice to enter these towns defended by their walls and their conventionalities against everything that is noble and human, and raze them to the ground. To shoot all these flat-nosed, pious fakers and poor quality hidalgos; to set fire to all of the churches, and to violate all the nuns....”

“You’ve been drinking, Quentin.”

“I? I’m as calm as a bean plant, which is the calmest vegetable there is, according to the botanists.[176]”

“You must not talk like that of your native land in front of me.”

“Are you a patriot?”

“With all my heart. Aren’t you?”

“I am a citizen of the world.”

“It seems to me that you’ve been drinking, Quentin.”

“No; believe me.”

“I say this to you,” added the old woman after a long pause, “because for me, this is a solemn moment. I have told no one the story of my life until this moment.”

“The devil! What is she going to tell me?” mumbled Quentin.

“Are you vengeful?” asked the old woman.

“I?”

Quentin was not sure whether he was vengeful or not, but the old woman took his exclamation for one of assent.

“Then you shall avenge me, Quentin, and your family. We are of the same blood. Your grandfather, the Marquis of Tavera, and I are brother and sister.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He doesn’t know that he has a sister living. He thinks I died a long time ago.”

Quentin scrutinized the old woman closely and discovered certain resemblances to the old Marquis.

She pressed Quentin’s hand, and then commenced her story as follows:

“In villages, there are certain families in which hatred is perpetuated through century after century. In cities, after one or two generations, hatred and rivalry are gradually wiped out until they disappear altogether. Not so in the villages: people unconcerned in the quarrel carry[177] the story of it from father to son, present the chapter of insults to different individuals, and go on feeding the flame of rancour when it tends to extinguish itself.

“I was born in a large, highland village, of such an illustrious family as that of Tavera. My mother died young, my older brother went to England, the other to Madrid to take up a diplomatic career, while I remained in the village with my father and two maiden aunts.

“My mother, whom I scarcely knew, was very good, but rather simple; so much so that they say that when the fishes in our pool did not bite, she called in a professional fisherman and gave him a good day’s wages to teach them to do so.

“My family came from an important village in the province of Toledo, near La Puebla, where long ago there used to stand a tower and a castle and various strongholds, which are now nothing but ruins.

“According to my father, a harsh man, proud of his titles and lineage, we came from the oldest nobility, from the conquerors of Cordova, and were related to the whole Andalusian aristocracy: the Baenas, Arjonas, Cordovas, Velascos, and Gúzmans.

“In spite of our ancestry, our family did not enjoy any especial respect from the townspeople on account of the display we made, because our property had diminished somewhat, and also because the new liberal ideas were beginning to make themselves felt.

“My father owned nearly the whole village; he received a contribution from every chimney; he had the only interment chapel in the large church; and a patronage in several smaller churches and hermitages. In spite of the prestige of his lineage and his wealth, every[178] one hated him—justly, I believe, for he was despotic, violent and cruel.

“That was about fifty years ago. My nose did not try to meet my chin then, nor did I lack any teeth; I was a lass worth looking at; graceful as a golden pine, and blonder than a candle. Any one seeing me in those days would have liked to know me! I lived with my father, who used to aim a blow at me every once in a while, and with my aunts, who were busybodies, meddlers, and crazy.

“As I have already said, my father had enemies; some openly avowed, others secret, but who all did the greatest amount of harm they could. Among them, the most powerful was the Count of Do?a Mencia, whose family, much more recently come to the village than ours, was slowly acquiring property and power.

“The rivalry between the two houses was increased by a lawsuit which the Do?a Mencias won against us, and it grew into a savage hatred when my father committed the offensive act of violating one of the rival family’s little girls.

“The Do?a Mencias took the child to Cordova; my father once heard a bullet whistle by his head as he was on his way to a farm—and this was the state of affairs, my family hated by our rivals and by nearly all of the townspeople, when I reached my eighteenth year, with no one to advise me but my aunts.

“I was, as I have said before, very pretty, and attracted attention wherever I went. Even at that age I had already had two or three beaux with whom I used to talk through my window-grating, when the Count of Do?a Mencia’s eldest son began to call upon me, and finally to ask for my hand. The whole village was sur[179]prised at this; I was disposed to pay no attention to him; moreover, I received several anonymous letters telling me that if I listened to the Count’s son, very disagreeable consequences might arise, because the hatred was still latent between the two families. I was just about decided to refuse him, when my aunts, crazy novel readers that they were, insisted that I ought to listen to him, for the boy’s intentions were honourable, and in this way I could once and for all put an end to the rivalry and hatred.

“My father prided himself upon the fact that he never interfered with what was happening in the family; his only occupations were hunting, drinking, and chasing after farm girls, and if I had consulted him about the affair, he would have sent me harshly about my business.

“So, following my aunts’ advice, I accepted the enemy of our home as a sweetheart, and received him for a year. One time in the garden, which was where we used to see each other, he threw himself upon me and attempted to overpower me; but people came in answer to my cries. My betrothed said that I had foolishly taken fright, as he was only trying to kiss me; I wanted to break the engagement, but instead of breaking off our relations, the affair only hastened the wedding.

“Grand preparations were made, but so sure were the townspeople that my sweetheart would never marry me, that servants, friends, every one, gave me to understand that the wedding would never take place, and that my betrothed would be capable of changing his mind at the very foot of the altar. Thus warned, I attempted to lessen the expense of the wedding, but my aunts tried to convince me not to do such a crazy thing.

“In fine, the day which was as dreaded as it was hoped[180] for, arrived; my betrothed appeared at the church, and the wedding was celebrated. God knows how many hopes I had of being happy. The marriage feast was eaten; the ball was held. The festivities lasted until midnight, when we retired.

“The next morning when I awoke, I looked for my husband at my side, but did not find him. He never appeared all day long; they looked for him, but in vain. Days and days passed, and more days, while I waited for him, fearing an accident rather than an insult. After a long time, I received a mocking letter from him in which he told me that he would never come back to me.

“From that one wedding night, I became pregnant, and on this account suffered much anxiety. My father, in whom the affair had rekindled the anger at the rival family, assured me that he would strangle the child if it were born alive: my aunts did nothing but weep at every turn.

“I was restless; I don’t know whether from pain or what, and gave premature birth at eight months to a dead boy.

“A short time after, my father died of a fall from his horse, the administrator started a lawsuit against us, and took all our property from us; my older brother was travelling, the other was in Rome; I wrote to them, and they did not answer; my aunts took refuge in the house of some relatives, and I went where the will of God took me.

“At first I was in mortal terror, but I soon got used to it, and did everything. I’ve lived like a princess and like a beggar; I’ve intrigued in high circles, and have been an army vivandière. I have been in a battle in the Carlist wars, and have walked among the bullets with the[181] same indifference with which I walk the streets of Cordova today.

“After a while, with the pain I suffered, I forgot everything,—everything except my husband’s infamy, and that of his whole family.

“That family has gone on implacably bringing disgrace to ours. When they killed your father there was a man pursuing him with the soldiers. Do you know who he was? My husband’s son. And his grandson was Rafaela’s sweetheart, the one who left her when he thought she was penniless.

“My husband married again. He is a bigamist, and probably falsified my death certificate. Today he moves in high circles, but the blow he gets from his downfall will be all the greater.”

“What are you thinking of doing?” asked Quentin.

“Of denouncing him. I have not done so before on account of my older brother. I don’t want to bring shame to him in his last days. As for the other brother, I don’t mind; he is an egoist. When the Marquis dies, you’ll see what I shall do. If I die before he does, you will avenge me. Will you, Quentin?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all I want. Your word is enough. Ask me for whatever you want, and come to see me.”

Se?ora Patrocinio kissed Quentin’s cheek, and he left the house confounded.

“Now,” he murmured, “this woman turns out to be the sister of a marquis, married to a count, and my aunt. And she wants us to avenge ourselves. Why then let’s do so ... or let’s not. It’s all the same to me. You know your plan, Quentin,” he said to himself. “Who are you?” he asked himself, and immediately replied, “You are a man of action. Very good!”