h a fool! "Proofs! Proofs! Why
don't you ask the whole village for proofs, proofs! They've been
laughing at you for a year or more. It has been the talk of the town.
You won't get angry at me? You want the whole truth? Well, even the
'cats' and the sailors on the beach, when they want to say that a man's
wife is deceiving him, call him a worse _lanudo_ than the Rector."

"Damn your soul!" Pascualo roared, clenching his fist and shaking it in
Rosario's face. "Rosario ... Look, Rosario, be careful what you say.
Because ... if you don't make good on every blessed word of it ... I'll
wring your neck the way I would a chicken's."

"I wish you would! I'm tired of living. What have I to live for? No
children! Not a friend in the world! Work like a dog from morning till
night, to give him the money I earn so as to escape a beating. And he
beats me just the same! Wring my neck! That doesn't scare me! Look,
Pascualo, look!"

Rosario rolled up her sleeve, and showed on the sallow skin that covered
the bones and tendons of her fore-arm, the black-and-blue marks where a
heavy hand had squeezed it as in a vise. "And that's only one. I can
show you others almost anywhere on my body! And they come from having
complained about his bad behavior with Dolores! This one here I got this
morning, when I said he ought not go to the beach with her and help her
sell the fish as though he was her husband. And I said it wasn't fair to
make a fool of the Rector in public like that! But you want proofs,
proofs! Well, why didn't Tonet go out with you on the first trip two
days ago? He hurt his hand, didn't he? Yes, but his hand got well the
moment the _Mayflower_ was beyond the Breakwater. And the next morning
there wasn't a bandage to be seen. And everybody noticed it. And you
went to sea, to stay up all night, in the cold and wet, to keep your
home going for your wife, your dear Dolores! And Tonet stayed all warm
and cosy at home with her, the pair of them laughing to see what a
stupid, self-satisfied idiot you were! Tonet didn't sleep in this house
after you sailed. And he's not here even to-night. He ran in a few
moments ago, got his things and was off, saying he wouldn't be back
again. And where is he, Pascualo? Over at your house of course! They are
sure the _Mayflower_ will keep you down on the shore all night. And
Tonet is preparing to make himself at home in your place!"

"_Recristo!_"

The Rector raised his eyes to heaven, as he mutter