iction of grand superiority,
of great valor, and of elevated importance that the greater part
of his countrymen acquire in a few weeks. His heart had never been
capable of entertaining hate nor had he been able to find a single
filibuster; he saw only unhappy wretches whom he must despoil if he
did not wish to be more unhappy than they were. When he was threatened
with prosecution for passing himself off as a physician he was not
resentful nor did he complain. Recognizing the justness of the charge
against him, he merely answered, "But it's necessary to live!"

So they married, or rather, bagged each other, and went to Santa Ann
to spend their honeymoon. But on their wedding-night Dona Victorina
was attacked by a horrible indigestion and Don Tiburcio thanked God
and showed himself solicitous and attentive. A few days afterward,
however, he looked into a mirror and smiled a sad smile as he gazed
at his naked gums, for he had aged ten years at least.

Very well satisfied with her husband, Dona Victorina had a fine
set of false teeth made for him and called in the best tailors of
the city to attend to his clothing. She ordered carriages, sent to
Batangas and Albay for the best ponies, and even obliged him to keep a
pair for the races. Nor did she neglect her own person while she was
transforming him. She laid aside the native costume for the European
and substituted false frizzes for the simple Filipino coiffure, while
her gowns, which fitted her marvelously ill, disturbed the peace of
all the quiet neighborhood.

Her husband, who never went out on foot,--she did not care to have his
lameness noticed,--took her on lonely drives in unfrequented places to
her great sorrow, for she wanted to show him off in public, but she
kept quiet out of respect for their honeymoon. The last quarter was
coming on when he took up the subject of the rice-powder, telling her
that the use of it was false and unnatural. Dona Victorina wrinkled
up her eyebrows and stared at his false teeth. He became silent,
and she understood his weakness.

She placed a _de_ before her husband's surname, since the _de_ cost
nothing and gave "quality" to the name, signing herself "Victorina
de los Reyes _de_ De Espadana." This _de_ was such a mania with her
that neither the stationer nor her husband could get it out of her
head. "If I write only one _de_ it may be thought that you don't have
it, you fool!" she said to her husband. [119]

Soon she believed