than to a necessary good. At
once fear, and not confidence, presents itself; each one thinks only
of himself, no one thinks of the rest, and therefore we are all weak!"

"Well then, think of others before yourself and you'll see how they'll
leave you in the lurch. Don't you know the proverb, 'Charity begins
at home'?"

"You had better say," replied the exasperated teniente-mayor, "that
cowardice begins in selfishness and ends in shame! This very day I'm
going to hand in my resignation to the alcalde. I'm tired of passing
for a joke without being useful to anybody. Good-by!"

The women had opinions of still another kind.

"Ay_!_" sighed one woman of kindly expression. "The young men are
always so! If his good mother were alive, what would she say? When I
think that the like may happen to my son, who has a violent temper,
I almost envy his dead mother. I should die of grief!"

"Well, I shouldn't," replied another. "It wouldn't cause me any shame
if such a thing should happen to my two sons."

"What are you saying, Capitana Maria!" exclaimed the first, clasping
her hands.

"It pleases me to see a son defend the memory of his parents, Capitana
Tinay. What would you say if some day when you were a widow you heard
your husband spoken ill of and your son Antonio should hang his head
and remain silent?"

"I would deny him my blessing!" exclaimed a third, Sister Rufa, "but--"

"Deny him my blessing, never!" interrupted the kind Capitana Tinay. "A
mother ought not to say that! But I don't know what I should do--I
don't know--I believe I'd die--but I shouldn't want to see him
again. But what do you think about it, Capitana Maria?"

"After all," added Sister Rufa, "it must not be forgotten that it's
a great sin to place your hand on a sacred person."

"A father's memory is more sacred!" replied Capitana Maria. "No one,
not even the Pope himself, much less Padre Damaso, may profane such
a holy memory."

"That's true!" murmured Capitana Tinay, admiring the wisdom of
both. "Where did you get such good ideas?"

"But the excommunication and the condemnation?" exclaimed Sister
Rufa. "What are honor and a good name in this life if in the other we
are damned? Everything passes away quickly--but the excommunication--to
outrage a minister of Christ! No one less than the Pope can pardon
that!"

"God, who commands honor for father and mother, will pardon it,
God will not excommunicate him! And I tell you that if that young