"That is an opinion, like any other. The world may hold you to be infallible. I do not. I am far from believing that from your judgments there is no appeal to G.o.d."

"But is what you say true? But do you persist in your purpose, after my refusal? You respect nothing, you are a monster, a bandit."

"I am a man."

"A wretch! Let us end this at once. I refuse to give my daughter to you; I refuse her to you!"

"I will take her then! I shall take only what is mine."

"Leave my presence!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta, rising suddenly to her feet. "c.o.xcomb, do you suppose that my daughter thinks of you?"

"She loves me, as I love her."

"It is a lie! It is a lie!"

"She herself has told me so. Excuse me if, on this point, I put more faith in her words than in her mother's."

"How could she have told you so, when you have not seen her for several days?"

"I saw her last night, and she swore to me before the crucifix in the chapel that she would be my wife."

"Oh, scandal; oh, libertinism! But what is this? My G.o.d, what a disgrace!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta, pressing her head again between her hands and walking up and down the room. "Rosario left her room last night?"

"She left it to see me. It was time."

"What vile conduct is yours! You have acted like a thief; you have acted like a vulgar seducer!"

"I have acted in accordance with the teachings of your school. My intention was good."

"And she came down stairs! Ah, I suspected it! This morning at daybreak I surprised her, dressed, in her room. She told me she had gone out, I don't know for what. You were the real criminal, then. This is a disgrace! Pepe, I expected any thing from you rather than an outrage like this. Every thing is at an end! Go away! You are dead to me. I forgive you, provided you go away. I will not say a word about this to your father. What horrible selfishness! No, there is no love in you. You do not love my daughter!"

"G.o.d knows that I love her, and that is sufficient for me."

"Be silent, blasphemer! and don't take the name of G.o.d upon your lips!"

exclaimed Dona Perfecta. "In the name of G.o.d, whom I can invoke, for I believe in him, I tell you that my daughter will never be your wife. My daughter will be saved, Pepe; my daughter shall not be condemned to a living h.e.l.l, for a union with you would be a h.e.l.l!"

"Rosario will be my wife," repeated the mathematician, with pathetic calmness.

The pious lady was still more exasperated by her nephew's calm energy.

In a broken voice she said:

"Don't suppose that your threats terrify me. I know what I am saying.

What! are a home and a family to be outraged like this? Are human and divine authority to be trampled under foot in this way?"

"I will trample every thing under foot," said the engineer, beginning to lose his composure and speaking with some agitation.

"You will trample every thing under foot! Ah! it is easy to see that you are a barbarian, a savage, a man who lives by violence."

"No, dear aunt; I am mild, upright, honorable, and an enemy to violence; but between you and me--between you who are the law and I who am to honor it--is a poor tormented creature, one of G.o.d's angels, subjected to iniquitous tortures. The spectacle of this injustice, this unheard-of violence, is what has converted my rect.i.tude into barbarity; my reason into brute force; my honor into violence, like an a.s.sa.s.sin's or a thief's; this spectacle, senora, is what impels me to disregard your law, what impels me to trample it under foot, braving every thing. This which appears to you lawlessness is obedience to an unescapable law. I do what society does when a brutal power, as illogical as irritating, opposes its progress. It tramples it under foot and destroys it in an outburst of frenzy. Such am I at this moment--I do not recognize myself.

I was reasonable, and now I am a brute; I was respectful, and now I am insolent; I was civilized, and now I am a savage. You have brought me to this horrible extremity; infuriating me and driving me from the path of rect.i.tude which I was tranquilly pursuing. Who is to blame--I or you?"

"You, you!"

"Neither you nor I can decide the question. I think we are both to blame: you for your violence and injustice, I for my injustice and violence. We have both become equally barbarous, and we struggle with and wound each other without compa.s.sion. G.o.d has permitted that it should be so; my blood will be upon your conscience, yours will be upon mine. Enough now, senora. I do not wish to trouble you with useless words. We will now proceed to acts."

"To acts, very well!" said Dona Perfecta, roaring rather than speaking.

"Don't suppose that in Orbajosa there is no civil guard!"

"Good-by, senora. I will now leave this house. I think we shall meet again."

"Go, go! go now!" she cried, pointing with an energetic gesture to the door.

Pepe Rey left the room. Dona Perfecta, after p.r.o.nouncing a few incoherent words, which were the clearest expression of her anger, sank into a chair, with indications of fatigue, or of a coming attack of nerves. The maids came running in.

"Go for Senor Don Inocencio!" she cried. "Instantly--hurry! Ask him to come here!"

Then she tore her handkerchief with her teeth.

CHAPTER XX

RUMORS--FEARS

On the day following that of this lamentable quarrel, various rumors 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 n.o.bility, 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 be enamored. The girl allowed herself to be bribed with persuasive words and a good deal of money, because she was ignorant of the source of the notes and of the real meaning of the intrigue, for had she known that it was all a diabolical plot of Don Jose, although she liked the latter greatly, she would not have acted with treachery toward her mistress for all the money in the world.

One day Dona Perfecta, Don Inocencio, Jacinto, and Pinzon were conversing together in the garden. They were talking about the soldiers and the purpose for which they had been sent to Orbajosa, in which the Penitentiary found motive for condemning the tyrannical conduct of the Government; and, without knowing how it came about, Pepe Rey's name was mentioned.

"He is still at the hotel," said the little lawyer. "I saw him yesterday, and he gave me remembrances for you, Dona Perfecta."

"Was there ever seen such insolence! Ah, Senor Pinzon! do not be surprised at my using this language, speaking of my own nephew--that young man, you remember, who had the room which you occupy."

"Yes, I know. I am not acquainted with him, but I know him by sight and by reputation. He is an intimate friend of our brigadier."

"An intimate friend of the brigadier?"

"Yes, senor; of the commander of the brigade that has just arrived in this district, and which is quartered in the neighboring villages."

"And where is he?" asked the lady.