umors
regarding Pepe Rey and his conduct spread through Orbajosa, going from
house to house, from club to club, from the Casino to the apothecary's
and from the Paseo de las Descalzes to the Puerta de Baidejos. They were
repeated by every body, and so many were the comments made that, if Don
Cayetano had collected and compiled them, he might have formed with
them a rich "Thesaurus" of Orbajosan benevolence. In the midst of the
diversity of the reports circulated, there was agreement in regard to
certain important particulars, one of which was the following:

That the engineer, enraged at Dona Perfecta's refusal to marry Rosario
to an atheist, had raised his hand to his aunt.

The young man was living in the widow De Cusco's hotel, an establishment
mounted, as they say now, not at the height, but at the depth of the
superlative backwardness of the town. Lieutenant-colonel Pinzon visited
him with frequency, in order that they might discuss together the plot
which they had on hand, and for the successful conduct of which the
soldier showed the happiest dispositions. New artifices and stratagems
occurred to him at every instant, and he hastened to put them into
effect with excellent humor, although he would often say to his friend:

"The role I am playing, dear Pepe, is not a very dignified one; but to
give an annoyance to the Orbajosans I would walk on my hands and feet."

We do not know what cunning stratagems the artful soldier, skilled in
the wiles of the world, employed; but certain it is that before he had
been in the house three days he had succeeded in making himself greatly
liked by every body in it. His manners were very pleasing to Dona
Perfecta, who could not hear unmoved his flattering praises of
the elegance of the house, and of the nobility, piety, and august
magnificence of its mistress. With Don Inocencio he was hand and glove.
Neither her mother nor the Penitentiary placed any obstacle in the way
of his speaking with Rosario (who had been restored to liberty on the
departure of her ferocious cousin); and, with his delicate compliments,
his skilful flattery, and great address, he had acquired in the house
of Polentinos considerable ascendency, and he had even succeeded in
establishing himself in it on a footing of familiarity. But the object
of all his arts was a servant maid named Librada, whom he had seduced
(chastely speaking) that she might carry messages and notes to Rosario,
of whom he pretended to