this miserable situation, and seeing no way of finding work, he suddenly
adopted a violent resolution: namely, that of undertaking manual labor.
With his face darkened by an expression of pain he said to himself as he
walked along:--

"Rather than my wife starve to death I am ready to do anything....
Anything! even to commit robbery. I am going to try the last resort."

Near his house was a printing-office where on days of depression, when
he had just received some rebuff, he often spent long hours watching the
compositors at their work or trying himself to spell out some easy task.
The proprietor was an excellent man, and very cordial relations had
sprung up between them. He went in there and calling him aside, he
said:--

"Don Manuel, I find myself without means of getting food; in spite of
all my efforts during these last months I have not been able to obtain a
situation. Would you be willing to take me as an apprentice in your
office, giving me a little something on account of future work?"

The printer looked at him with an expression of sadness.

"Are you so bad off as all that, Don Miguel?"

"In the last depths of poverty."

The owner of the printing-office considered a few moments, and said:--

"Before you could learn how to set type with any degree of rapidity, a
long time would pass. Besides, it is not right that a _caballero_ should
soil his hands with ink. The only thing that you can do here is to help
the proof-reader. Do you object?"

"I am ready to do whatever you order."

He spent that day, in fact, reading proofs. At night the proprietor told
him that he would give him three pesetas a day salary until he dismissed
the present proof-reader, who was a great drunkard. As he started to
leave, he thrust into his hand a ten-duro bill as advance pay.

"Thanks, Don Manuel," he said, deeply touched. "In you, who are a
workingman, I have found more generosity than in all the _caballeros_
whom I have been to see up to the present time."

For several days he worked as well as he could, conscientiously
fulfilling his task. It was hard and monotonous to the last degree; it
kept him busy from early in the morning till night. Moreover, the very
insignificant pay scarcely sufficed to buy potatoes; and although the
proprietor was anxious to send away the proof-reader and give him the
place, Miguel opposed it because he also was the father of a family, and
had no other means of livelihood.

XXIX.