and that he strives to convey. And finally, there should be
mentioned those stories in which Galdos shows us the beauty and
uplifting power of natural sentiment, as _Marianela_; or the positive
and beneficent results that may come from a certain pure and unbigoted,
though somewhat mystical, religious feeling, as _Angel Guerra, Nazarin,_
and _Halma_.

It is clear from the above hasty survey of Galdos' work that there runs
through it all a profound moral sentiment, a sense of the tragedy of
modern life, an impatience of the irremediable and hopeless
contradictions in which ignorance and intolerance involve us. At the
same time, it should not be supposed that the general impression
produced by his novels is gloomy and forbidding. On the contrary, few
modern writers show so constantly the play of a free and wholesome
humor, or in more manly fashion take life as it comes, without tears or
whining. He does not strive nor cry; nor does he moralize. He shows us
life as it appears to him in a critical period of his nation's history,
unfolding it before us in its incessant variety, and not debauching us
by lessons of unmanly pessimism any more than by alluring optimism. And
to give to his work its final and irresistible claim upon us, he is the
master of a singularly rich and virile style--a style not modeled upon a
fad, but expressive of the whole nature of the man; capable of
eloquence, of wit and humor, of anger and scorn; now simple and
unadorned, now laden with a burden of reflection and of the great
traditional memories, literary and other, of the race. The Spanish
purists have indeed declared this style to be far from impeccable, and
this is altogether probable. But none the less it has something much
more important than impeccability; it has life and strength, and, when
its master pleases, beauty.

1

DONA PERFECTA

I

=Villahorrenda!... cinco minutos!...=

Cuando el tren mixto descendente numero 65 (no es
preciso nombrar la linea), se detuvo en la pequena estacion
situada entre los kilometros 171 y 172, casi todos los viajeros
de segunda y tercera clase se quedaron durmiendo o bostezando
[5] dentro de los coches, porque el frio penetrante de la
madrugada no convidadas a pasear por el desamparado
anden. El unico viajero