he had come to dominate her
husband completely. On his part, he offered no great resistance,
and was converted into a little lap dog for her. If he incommoded
her she would not let him go out for a drive, and when she became
really infuriated, she would snatch out his false teeth and leave him
a horrible-looking man for one or more days, according to the offense.

It occurred to her that her husband ought to be a Doctor of Medicine
and Surgery, and so she expressed herself to him.

"Daughter! Do you want them to arrest me?" he said, frightened.

"Don't be a fool. Let me arrange it!" she replied. "You are not going
to attend any one, but I want them to call you a doctor and me a
doctora, eh?"

And on the following day Rodoreda, a prominent marble dealer in Manila,
received an order for the following engraving on black marble: Dr. De
Espadana, Specialist in All Kinds of Diseases.

All of the servants had to give them their new titles, and, in
consequence of it all, she increased the number of her curls in
front, the layer of rice powder, the ribbons and laces, and looked
with more disdain than ever on the poor and less fortunate women
of her country, who had less categoria than she. Each day she felt
herself more dignified and elevated, and, following along this road,
in less than a year she would think herself of divine origin.

These sublime thoughts, however, did not prevent her from growing more
ridiculous and older each day. Every time that Captain Tiago met her
in the street and remembered that he had once made love to her in vain,
he would go at once to the church and give a peso for a mass as a thank
offering for his good luck in not marrying her. In spite of this,
Captain Tiago highly respected her husband, on account of his title
of "specialist in all kinds of diseases," and he listened with close
attention to the few phrases that he managed to stutter out. In fact,
it was on account of this title and the fact that the doctor did not
attend everybody, that the Captain chose him to attend his daughter.

As to the young man Linares, it is a different story. When she
was making ready for her voyage to Spain, Dona Victorina thought of
having an administrator from the Peninsula to look after her affairs,
for she did not trust Filipinos. Her husband remembered a nephew in
Madrid who was studying to become a lawyer, and who was considered
the smartest one in his family. They wrote to him, then, sending him
in a