ics we have a case like those in the old
comedies of intrigue, where the lackeys pretend to be gentlemen. When I
am once among the gentlemen, I shall know how to prove that I am more a
master than the people surrounding me."

"How conceited you are."

"The confidence one feels in oneself," said Caesar ironically.

"But have you really got it, or do you only pretend to have?"

"What matter whether I have it or haven't it, if I behave as if I had
it?"

"It matters a lot. It matters whether you are calm or not in the moment
of danger."

"Calmness is the muse that inspires me. I haven't it in my thoughts, but
in active life you shall see me!"

The two friends stretched themselves out in their first-class
compartment, and lay half asleep until dawn, when they got up again.

The train was running rapidly across the flat country; the yellow
sunlight shone into the car; through the newly sowed fields rode men on
horseback.

"These are not my dominions yet," said Caesar.

"We have two more stations till Castro Duro," responded Alzugaray,
consulting the time-table. They took off their caps, put them into the
bag, Caesar put on a fresh collar, and they sat down by the window.

"It is ugly enough, eh?" said Alzugaray.

"Naturally," replied Caesar. "What do you want; that there should be
some of those green landscapes like in your country, which for my part
irritate me?"

THE CLASSIC STAGECOACH

They arrived at Castro Duro. In the station they saw groups of peasants.
The travellers with their baggage went out of the station. There were
two shabby coaches at the door.

"Are you going to the Comercio?" asked one driver.

"No, they are going to the Espana," said the other.

"Then you two know more than we do," answered Alzugaray, "because we
don't know where to go."

"To the Comercio!"

"To the Espana!"

"Whose coach is this one?" asked Caesar, pointing to the less dirty of
the two.

"The Comercio's."

"All right, then we are going to the Comercio."

The coach, in spite of being the better of the two, was a rickety,
worn-out old omnibus, with its windows broken and spotted. It was drawn
by three skinny mules, full of galls. Caesar and Alzugaray got in and
waited. The coachman, with the whip around his neck, and a young man who
looked a bit like a seminarian, began to chat and smoke.

At the end of five minutes' waiting, Caesar asked:

"Well, aren't we going?"

"In a moment, sir."

The moment st