well, for that
would be only the concealment of Antequera. Since you have been wounded,
Pepita comes here twice a day, and sends Antonona two or three times
more to inquire after you; and if they have not come in to see you, it
is because I would not consent to their doing so, lest it should excite
you."

The confusion and the distress of Don Luis reached their climax when he
heard his father thus compendiously tell the whole story.

"How surprised," he said, "how astounded you must have been!"

"No, my boy, I was neither surprised nor astounded. The matter has been
known in the village only for four days, and indeed, to tell the truth,
your transformation did create some surprise. 'Oh, the sly-boots! the
wolf in sheep's clothing! the hypocrite!' every one exclaimed, 'how we
have been deceived in him!' The reverend vicar, above all, is quite
bewildered. He is still crossing himself to think how you toiled in the
vineyard of the Lord on the night of the 23d and the morning of the
24th, and of how diverse a character were your labors. But there was
nothing in these occurrences to surprise me, except your wound. We old
people can feel the grass grow. It is not easy for the chickens to
deceive the huckster."

"It is true, I sought to deceive you! I have been a hypocrite!"

"Don't be a fool; I do not say this to blame you. I say it in order to
give myself an air of perspicacity. But let us speak with frankness. My
boasting is, after all, without foundation. I knew, step by step, for
more than two months past, the progress of your love-affair with Pepita;
but I know it because your uncle the dean, to whom you were writing all
that passed within your mind, has communicated it to me. Listen to your
uncle's letter of accusation, and to the answer I gave him, a very
important document, of which I have kept the copy."

Don Pedro took some papers from his pocket, and read as follows:

* * * * *

_The Dean's Letter._

"MY DEAR BROTHER: It grieves me to the heart to be obliged to give you a
piece of bad news; but I trust that God will grant you patience and
endurance to enable you to hear it without feeling too much anger or
bitterness. Luisito has been writing me strange letters for some days
past, in which he reveals, in the midst of his mystical exaltation, an
inclination, earthly and sinful enough, toward a certain widow,
charming, mischievous, and coquettish, who lives in your village