undred thousand; and if
don Matias said "yes," he just went in to his bedroom and, God knows
from where, he would draw out a roll of bank-notes the size of your
body!

And this lucky rustic, this upstart lout, rich without deserving it for
any competence he had, was giving himself the airs of an intelligent
dealer, presuming to approach Rafael, "his deputy," with a proposal for
a freight-rate bill to promote the shipping of oranges into the interior
of Spain! As if a little thing like a bill in Congress would make any
difference to his way of getting money!

Of his wretched past don Matias preserved but a single trait: his
respect for the house of Brull. The rest of the city he treated with a
certain uppishness; but he could not conceal the awe which dona Bernarda
inspired in him--a feeling that was strengthened by gratitude for her
kindness in singling him out (after he had become rich), and for the
interest she showed in his "little girl." He cherished a vivid memory of
Rafael's father, the "greatest man" he had known in all his life. It
seemed as though he could still see don Ramon stopping on his big horse
in front of his humble farmhouse and, with the air of a grand lord,
leaving orders for what don Matias was to do in the coming elections.
He knew the bad state in which the great man had left his affairs upon
his death; and more than once he had given money to dona Bernarda
outright, proud that she should do him the honor of appealing to him in
her straits. But in his eyes, the House of Brull, poor or rich, was
always the House of Brull, the cradle of a dynasty whose authority
no power could shake. He had money. But those _others_, the
Brulls--ah!--they had, up there in Madrid, friends, influence! If they
wanted to they could get the ear of the Throne itself. They were people
with a "pull," and if anyone suggested in his presence that Rafael's
mother was thinking of Remedios as a daughter-in-law, don Matias would
redden with satisfaction and modestly reply:

"I don't know; I imagine it's all talk. My Remedios is only a town girl,
you see. The senor deputy is probably thinking of someone from the
'upper crust' in Madrid."

Rafael had for some time been aware of his mother's plans. But he had no
use for "that crowd." The old man, despite his boresome habit of
suggesting "new bills," he could stand on account of his touching
loyalty to the Brull family. But the girl was an utterly insignificant
creature, pretty,