ed, the first condition of which was that the friends
should pretend not to know each other, Pepe Rey went to the dining-room.
There he found his aunt, who had just returned from the cathedral where
she had spent the morning as was her habit. She was alone, and appeared
to be greatly preoccupied. The engineer observed that on that pale and
marble-like countenance, not without a certain beauty, there rested
a mysterious shadow. When she looked up it recovered its sinister
calmness, but she looked up seldom, and after a rapid examination of her
nephew's countenance, that of the amiable lady would again take on its
studied gloom.

They awaited dinner in silence. They did not wait for Don Cayetano, for
he had gone to Mundogrande. When they sat down to table Dona Perfecta
said:

"And that fine soldier whom the Government has sent us, is he not coming
to dinner?"

"He seems to be more sleepy than hungry," answered the engineer, without
looking at his aunt.

"Do you know him?"

"I have never seen him in all my life before."

"We are nicely off with the guests whom the Government sends us. We have
beds and provisions in order to keep them ready for those vagabonds of
Madrid, whenever they may choose to dispose of them."

"There are fears of an insurrection," said Pepe Rey, with sudden heat,
"and the Government is determined to crush the Orbajosans--to crush
them, to grind them to powder."

"Stop, man, stop, for Heaven's sake; don't crush us!" cried Dona
Perfecta sarcastically. "Poor we! Be merciful, man, and allow us unhappy
creatures to live. And would you, then, be one of those who would aid
the army in the grand work of crushing us?"

"I am not a soldier. I will do nothing but applaud when I see the germs
of civil war; of insubordination, of discord, of disorder, of robbery,
and of barbarism that exist here, to the shame of our times and of our
country, forever extirpated."

"All will be as God wills."

"Orbajosa, my dear aunt, has little else than garlic and bandits; for
those who in the name of some political or religious idea set out in
search of adventures every four or five years are nothing but bandits."

"Thanks, thanks, my dear nephew!" said Dona Perfecta, turning pale. "So
Orbajosa has nothing more than that? Yet there must be something else
here--something that you do not possess, since you have come to look for
it among us."

Rey felt the cut. His soul was on fire. He found it very difficult to
s