the family, as she had always meant to do! Well, that Queen
Virtuous knew which side her bread was buttered on. Just what she
needed--a husband with a thick skull and nothing inside it, who would be
able to work like a cart-horse from morning till night. The pickpocket!
Just like her to steal the only man in the family that could earn a
cent!

But then suddenly Tona thought of something, and she broke off her
tirade. Better let them get married! That simplified the situation and
favored her own plans. Tonet would now take Rosario! Though it was hard
to swallow it all, she consented even to attend the wedding and say
_filla mehua_ to that scheming hussy who changed her men as she changed
her clothes!

But what would Tonet say, what would Tonet do, when he heard the glad
tidings? That was something to worry about, because everybody remembered
the kind of temper he had when he got angry. So another surprise was due
when the boy wrote back that everything was all right and that he was
glad of it. Been away so long, you see, new faces, new places! That,
doubtless, was why he found it so natural that Dolores should take a
husband, since she had no one else to fall back on. Besides,--and this
is what Tonet himself said--it was better for her to marry his brother
than run any risk on some one else; and the Rector was a good sort, too.

And the sailor showed himself just as reasonable when he turned up in
the Cabanal one evening, with his discharge papers in his pocket and his
bundle of clothes slung over his shoulder, surprising everybody with the
fine appearance he made and with the reckless way he threw money around
from the back pay he had just collected. Dolores he greeted
affectionately as a sister he was fond of. Oh, that? What the devil!
Don't even think of that! It was all right, all right! He had not been
having a bad time himself on his trip around the world! And, in the
midst of the popularity he was enjoying as a returned hero, Tonet seemed
to forget all about Dolores and the Rector.

In front of the door of _tio_ Paella's old place, now occupied by
Pascualet, the villagers would sit in the open air all night sometimes,
on low stools or on the ground, listening open-mouthed while the sailor
told about the countries he had visited, embroidering his adventures
with harmless embellishments to rouse greater thrills in his
simple-minded audience. As compared with the uncouth fishermen they
knew, dull and stupid from