an inclination to be
voluble and contradictory; with a sympathetic woman, on the contrary, he
would have seemed to himself like a circus runner whom one of his pupils
is trying to overtake, and who has to run hard to keep the record where
it belongs.

But his wife was neither one nor the other.

Amparito had an extraordinary insouciance, gaiety, facility, in
accepting life. Caesar never ceased being amazed. She spent her days
working, talking, singing. The slightest diversion enchanted her,
the most insignificant gift aroused a lively satisfaction.

"Everything is decided, as far as you are concerned," Caesar used, to
tell her.

"By what?"

"By your character."

She laughed at that.

It seemed as if she had chosen the best attitude toward life. She saw
that her husband was not religious, but she considered that an attribute
of men, and thought that God must have an especial complacency toward
husbands, if only so as not to leave wives alone in paradise.

Amparito held by a fetichistic Catholicism, conditioned by her situation
in life, and mixed with a lot of heterodox and contradictory ideas, but
she didn't give any thought to that.

The marriage was very successful; they never had disputes or
discussions. When both were stubborn, they never noticed which one
yielded.

They had rented one rather big floor facing on the Retiro, and they
began to furnish it.

Amparito had bad taste in decoration; everything loud pleased her, and
sometimes when Caesar laughed, she would say:

"I know I am a crazy country girl. You must tell me how to fix things."

Caesar decided the arrangement of a little reception-room. He chose
a light paper for the walls, some coloured engravings, and Empire
furniture. Female friends found the room very well done. Amparito used
to tell them:

"Yes, Caesar had it done like this," as if that were a weighty argument
with everybody.

Amparito and her father persuaded Caesar that he ought to open an
office. All the people in Castro lamented that Caesar did not practise
law.

He had always felt a great repugnance for that sharpers' and skinflints'
business; but he yielded to please Amparito, and set up his office and
took an assistant who was very skillful in legal tricks. Caesar was often
to be found writing in the office, when Amparito opened the door.

"Do you want to come here a moment?" she would say.

"Yes. What is it?"

"Look and see how this hat suits me. How do you like it