as we have said, that his life, that
until now he had dreamed might be worthy of the "Golden Legend," was
about to be converted into a sweet and perpetual idyl. He had not been
able to resist the lures of earthly passion. He had failed to imitate
the example set by so many saints, among others by St. Vincent Ferrer
with regard, to a certain dissolute lady of Valencia; though, indeed,
the cases were dissimilar. For if to flee from the diabolical courtesan
in question was an act of heroic virtue in St. Vincent, to flee from the
self-abandonment, the ingenuousness, and the humility of Pepita would,
in him, have been something as monstrous and cruel as if, when Ruth lay
down at the feet of Boaz, saying to him, "I am thy handmaid; spread
therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid," Boaz had given her a blow and
sent her about her business! Don Luis, then, when Pepita surrendered
herself to him, was obliged to follow the example of Boaz, and exclaim:
"Daughter, blessed be thou of the Lord; thou hast shewed more kindness
in the latter end than at the beginning." Thus did Don Luis justify
himself in not following the example of St. Vincent, and other saints no
less churlish. As for the ill success of the design he had entertained
of imitating St. Edward, he tried also to justify and excuse it. St.
Edward married for reasons of state, and without entertaining any
affection for Queen Edith; but in his case and in that of Pepita
Ximenez there were no reasons of state, but only a tender love on both
sides.

Don Luis, however, did not deny to himself--and this imparted to his
present happiness a slight tinge of melancholy--that he had proved false
to his ideal; that he had been vanquished in the conflict. Those who
have no ideal, who have never had an ideal, would not distress
themselves on this account. Don Luis did distress himself; but he
presently came to the conclusion that he would substitute a more humble
and easily attained ideal for his former exalted one. And although the
recollection of Don Quixote's resolution to turn shepherd, on being
vanquished by the Knight of the White Moon, here crossed his mind with
ludicrous appositeness, he was in no way daunted by it. He thought, in
union with Pepita Ximenez, to renew, in our prosaic and unbelieving
time, the golden age, and to repeat the pious example of Philemon and
Baucis, creating: a model of patriarchal life in these pleasant fields,
founding in the place where he was born a