dana was her
mania. Neither the lithographer who printed her cards, nor her husband,
could get the idea out of her head.

"If I do not put more than one de in the name people will think that
I haven't it, fool!" said she to her husband.

She was talking continually about her preparations for the voyage
to Spain. She learned by memory the names of the points where the
steamers called, and it was a pleasure to hear her talk--"I am going
to see the sismus of the Suez Canal. De Espadana thinks that it is
the most beautiful, and De Espadana has seen the whole world."--"I
will probably never return to this land of savages."--"I was not
born to live here. Aden or Port Said would be more suitable for
me. I have always thought so since I was a child." Dona Victorina,
in her geography, divided the world into two parts, the Philippines
and Spain. In this she differed from the lower class of people in
Madrid for they divide it into Spain and America, or Spain and China,
America and China being merely different names for the same country.

The husband knew that some of these things were barbarisms, but he
kept silent so that she would not mock him and twit him with his
stammering. She feigned to be whimsical in order to increase her
illusion that she was a mother, and she began to dress herself in
colors, adorn herself with flowers and ribbons, and to walk through the
Escolta in a wrapper. But oh! what an illusion! Three months passed and
the dream vanished. By this time, having no fear that her son would
be a revolutionist, she gave up the voyage. She consulted doctors,
mid-wives and old women, but all in vain. To the great displeasure
of Captain Tiago she made fun of San Pascual Bailon, as she did not
care to run to any saint. On account of this a friend of her husband
told her:

"Believe me, Senora, you are the only espiritu fuerte (strong-minded
person) in this country."

She smiled without understanding what espiritu fuerte meant, but, at
night, when it was time to be sleeping, she asked her husband about it.

"Daughter," replied he, "the e--espir--espiritu most fu-fuerte that I
know--know about is a--a--ammonia. My fr-fr-friend must have be-been
us-using a figure of rhetoric."

From that time on, she was always saying, whenever she could, "I am
the only ammonia in this country, speaking rhetorically, as Senor N. de
N. who is from the Peninsula and who has much categoria, puts it."

Whatever she said had to be done. S