her distasteful, pert and impertinent; to his friend, on
the contrary, she had seemed very attractive, very amiable and very
clever.

"To me," said Caesar, "she appears one of these small town lasses who
have a flirtation with a student, then with a captain, and finally
marry some rich brute, and get fat, and turn into old sows, and grow
moustaches."

"In that I think you are fundamentally unjust," said Alzugaray.
"Amparito is not a small town lass, for she lives in Madrid almost all
year. Besides, that makes no difference; what I have not observed is her
committing any folly or impertinence." "Dear man, it all depends on
how you look at it. To me her conduct seemed bad, to you it seems all
right."

"You are an extremist, for I can assure you that you were actually rude
to her."

"Actually rude, I don't think; but I admit that I was cool and not very
amiable."

"And why were you?"

"First, because it is politic of me, since Don Calixto's family do not
care for Amparito; and secondly, because the little creature didn't
please me, either."

"And why didn't she please you? For no reason at all?"

"I am not partial to the platyrrhine races."

"What nonsense! And you wish to look at things clearly! A man that
judges people by their noses!"

"It seems to you little to go on? A brunette girl, brachicephalic and
rather platyrrhine.... There is no more to say."

"And if she had been blond, dolichocephalic, and long-nosed, she would
have seemed all right to you."

"Her ethnic type would have seemed all right."

"Let's not discuss it. What's the use? But I feel that you are arbitrary
to an extreme."

"If she knew of our discussion, the young thing couldn't complain,
because if she has had a systematic detractor in me, she has found an
enthusiastic defender in you."

"Yes, dear man; it is only at such long intervals that I see a person
with ingenuousness and enthusiasm, that when I do meet one, I get a real
joy from it."

"You are a sentimentalist."

"That's true; and you have become an inquisitor."

"Most certainly. I believe we agree on that and on all the rest."

"I think so. All right. Good-bye!" said Alzugaray, ill-humouredly.

"Salutations!" replied Caesar.

VI. UNCLE CHINAMAN

CIDONES

Caesar impatiently awaited Senor Peribanez's reply, so that he might
return to Madrid. He was fed up with Don Calixto's conversation and his
wife's, and with the familiarity they had established with h