or less accusatory.

"Poor young man!" exclaimed an old man, the husband of Pute.

"Yes!" replied his wife. "But he did not order a mass for the soul
of his father, who undoubtedly needs it more than others."

"But wife, you don't have any pity...."

"Sympathy for the excommunicated? It is a sin to have pity for the
enemies of God, say the curates. Don't you remember? He ran over the
sacred burial ground as if he were in a cattle pen."

"But a cattle pen and a cemetery are much alike," responded the old
man, "except that but one class of animals enter the cemetery."

"What!" cried Sister Pute. "Are you still going to defend him whom
God so clearly punishes? You will see that they will arrest you,
too. You may support a falling house, if you want to!"

The husband became silent in view of this argument.

"Yes," continued the old woman, "after striking Father Damaso, there
was nothing left for him to do but to kill Father Salvi."

"But you can't deny that he was a good boy when he was a child."

"Yes, he was a good child," replied the old woman, "but he went to
Spain. All those who go to Spain return heretics, so the curates say."

"Oh!" exclaimed the husband, seeing his revenge. "And the curate,
and all the curates, and the Archbishops, and the Pope, and the
Virgin--are they not Spaniards? Bah! Are they heretics, too? Bah!"

Happily for Sister Pute, the arrival of a servant, who rushed in
confused and pale, cut off the discussion.

"A man hanged in a neighboring orchard!" she exclaimed breathless.

"A man hanged!" exclaimed all, full of amazement.

The women crossed themselves. No one could stir.

"Yes, Senor," continued the servant, trembling. "I was going to
gather some peas in.... I looked into the orchard next door ... to
see if there ... I saw a man swinging.... I thought it was Teo ... I
went nearer to gather peas, and I saw that it was not he but it was
another, and was dead ... I ran, ran and...."

"Let us go and see it," said the old man, rising. "Take us there."

"Don't go!" cried Sister Pute, seizing him by the shirt.

"You'll get into trouble! He has hanged himself? Then all the worse
for him!"

"Let me see it, wife! Go to the tribunal, Juan, and report it. Perhaps
he is not dead yet."

And he went ino[typo, should be into?] the orchard, followed by the
servant, who kept hid behind him. The women and Sister Pute herself
came along behind, full of terror and curiosity.

"There it is,