well that I am of no good for kicking my heels
in the ante-chambers of ministers, that I am not one to suffer
impertinences and scorn, nor have I the talent for manoeuvring plots,
nor the audacity for meddling in dark intrigues. I am so constituted
that a cool look wounds me, a discourteous word annoys me, any
disloyalty crushes and overwhelms me. I am incapable of giving my word
and not fulfilling it; I have not sufficient calmness to keep cool when
brought into contact with the sympathy and love, or the aversion, which
men inspire in me. I get excited and lose my head with excessive ease,
and under the influence of anger I speak out the first word that comes
into my mind, however dangerous it is. Moreover, I have the misfortune
of always seeing the comic side of things, and I have not sufficient
strength of mind to repress myself and to refrain from saying what I
think. Politicians, when they are not knaves worthy of jail, seem to
me, with a few honorable exceptions, a herd of vulgar, ignorant men who
have taken up this occupation as the easiest and most lucrative; many of
them village intriguers who come to repeat in Congress the same
trickeries which they have been practising in the _Ayuntamiento_[39] or
the _Diputacion_;[40] others, men who have failed in literature, the
sciences, and the arts, and not getting there the notoriety that they
crave, seek it in the more accessible field of politics: a young man
whose drama has been hissed off the stage; another, who has tried five
or six times in vain to get a professorship; another, who has written
various books that remain virgins and martyrs on the publishers'
shelves,--these are the ones who, making their way into the Hall of
Congress, where no one is judged by his merits, and rallying under the
standard of some personage who began as they did, climb to lofty
destinies, and as time goes on, come to regulate the affairs of the
nation.... But I have become too serious," he added, lowering his voice
and smiling. "The principal argument that I bring up against dedicating
myself to political life,--I will tell it to you as a secret,--is, that
I detest it; I detest it from the bottom of my heart. Nevertheless, as I
am threatened with ruin, I am determined to enter it to restore my
fortunes, which I was foolish enough to compromise."

Brutandor looked at him with wide-opened eyes: any one can imagine,
knowing the tendency of his mind, that Miguel spoke a language entirely