"Exactly so."

"But at present my thoughts are occupied less by the public war than by a private war in which I am engaged and which I declared a short time ago."

"You said this was your aunt's house. What is her name?"

"Dona Perfecta Rey de Polentinos."

"Ah! I know her by reputation. She is an excellent person, and the only one of whom I have not heard the garlic-venders speak ill. When I was here before I heard her goodness, her charity, her innumerable virtues, everywhere extolled."

"Yes, my aunt is very kind, very amiable," said Rey.

Then he fell into a thoughtful silence.

"But now I remember!" exclaimed Pinzon suddenly. "How one thing fits in with another! Yes, I heard in Madrid that you were going to be married to a cousin of yours. All is clear now. Is it that beautiful and heavenly Rosario?"

"Pinzon, we must have a long talk together."

"I imagine that there are difficulties."

"There is something more; there is violent opposition. I have need of a determined friend--a friend who is prompt to act, fruitful in resource, of great experience in emergencies, astute and courageous."

"Why, this is even more serious than a challenge."

"A great deal more serious. It would be easy to fight with another man.

With women, with unseen enemies who work in the dark, it is impossible."

"Come, I am all ears."

Lieutenant-colonel Pinzon lay stretched at full length upon the bed.

Pepe Rey drew a chair up to the bedside and, leaning his elbow on the bed and his head on his hand, began his conference, consultation, exposition of plan, or whatever else it might be called, and continued talking for a long time. Pinzon listened to him with profound attention and without interrupting him, except to ask an occasional question for the purpose of obtaining further details or additional light upon some obscure point. When Pepe Rey ended, Pinzon looked grave. He stretched himself, yawning with the satisfaction of one who has not slept for three nights, and then said:

"You plan is dangerous and difficult."

"But not impossible."

"Oh, no! for nothing is impossible. Reflect well about it."

"I have reflected."

"And you are resolved to carry it through? Consider that these things are not now in fashion. They generally turn out badly and throw discredit on those who undertake them."

"I am resolved."

"For my part, then, although the business is dangerous and serious--very serious--I am ready to aid you in all things and for all things."

"Can I rely upon you?"

"To the death."

CHAPTER XIX

A TERRIBLE BATTLE-STRATEGY

The opening of hostilities could not long be delayed. When the hour of dinner arrived, after coming to an agreement with Pinzon regarding the plan to be pursued, 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 G.o.d 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 show his aunt the consideration to which her s.e.x, her rank, and her relation to himself ent.i.tled her. He was on the verge of a violent outbreak, and a force that he could not resist was impelling him against his interlocutor.

"I came to Orbajosa," he said, "because you sent for me; you arranged with my father--"

"Yes, yes; it is true," she answered, interrupting him quickly and making an effort to recover her habitual serenity. "I do not deny it. I am the one who is really to blame. I am to blame for your ill-humor, for the slights you put upon us, for every thing disagreeable that has been happening in my house since you entered it."

"I am glad that you are conscious of it."

"In exchange, you are a saint. Must I also go down on my knees to your grace and ask your pardon?"

"Senora," said Pepe Rey gravely, laying down his knife and fork, "I entreat you not to mock me in so pitiless a manner. I cannot meet you on equal ground. All I have said is that I came to Orbajosa at your invitation."

"And it is true. Your father and I arranged that you should marry Rosario. You came in order to become acquainted with her. I accepted you at once as a son. You pretended to love Rosario--"

"Pardon me," objected Pepe; "I loved and I love Rosario; you pretended to accept me as a son; receiving me with deceitful cordiality, you employed from the very beginning all the arts of cunning to thwart me and to prevent the fulfilment of the proposals made to my father; you determined from the first day to drive me to desperation, to tire me out; and with smiles and affectionate words on your lips you have been killing me, roasting me at the slow fire; you have let loose upon me in the dark and from behind an ambush a swarm of lawsuits; you have deprived me of the official commission which I brought to Orbajosa; you have brought me into disrepute in the town; you have had me turned out of the cathedral; you have kept me constantly separated from the chosen of my heart; you have tortured your daughter with an inquisitorial imprisonment which will cause her death, unless G.o.d interposes to prevent it."

Dona Perfecta turned scarlet. But the flush of offended pride pa.s.sed away quickly, leaving her face of a greenish pallor. Her lips trembled.