Dona Perfecta

  CHAPTER XIII

  A CASUS BELLI

  After this prank the Troyas commenced a conversation with their visitorsabout the people and the affairs of the town. The engineer, fearingthat his exploit might be discovered while he was present, wished to go,which displeased the Troyas greatly. One of them who had left the roomnow returned, saying:

  "Suspiritos is now in the yard; she is hanging out the clothes."

  "Don Jose will wish to see her," said another of the girls.

  "She is a fine-looking woman. And now she arranges her hair in theMadrid fashion. Come, all of you."

  They took their visitors to the dining-room--an apartment very littleused--which opened on a terrace, where there were a few flowers inpots and many broken and disused articles of furniture. The terraceoverlooked the yard of an adjoining house, with a piazza full of greenvines and plants in pots carefully cultivated. Every thing about itshowed it to be the abode of neat and industrious people of modestmeans.

  The Troyas, approaching the edge of the roof, looked attentively atthe neighboring house, and then, imposing silence by a gesture on theircavaliers, retreated to a part of the terrace from which they could notsee into the yard, and where there was no danger of their being seenfrom it.

  "She is coming out of the kitchen now with a pan of peas," said MariaJuana, stretching out her neck to look.

  "There goes!" cried another, throwing a pebble into the yard.

  The noise of the projectile striking against the glass of the piazza washeard, and then an angry voice crying:

  "Now they have broken another pane of glass!"

  The girls, hidden, close beside the two men, in a corner of the terrace,were suffocating with laughter.

  "Senora Suspiritos is very angry," said Rey. "Why do they call her bythat name?"

  "Because, when she is talking, she sighs after every word, and althoughshe has every thing she wants, she is always complaining."

  There was a moment's silence in the house below. Pepita Troya lookedcautiously down.

  "There she comes again," she whispered, once more imposing silence by agesture. "Maria, give me a pebble. Give it here--bang! there it goes!"

  "You didn't hit her. It struck the ground."

  "Let me see if I can. Let us wait until she comes out of the pantryagain."

  "Now, now she is coming out. Take care, Florentina."

  "One, two, three! There it goes!"

  A cry of pain was heard from below, a malediction, a masculineexclamation, for it was a man who uttered it. Pepe Rey could distinguishclearly these words:

  "The devil! They have put a hole in my head, the----Jacinto, Jacinto!But what an abominable neighborhood this is!"

  "Good Heavens! what have I done!" exclaimed Florentina, filled withconsternation. "I have struck Senor Don Inocencio on the head."

  "The Penitentiary?" said Pepe Rey.

  "Yes."

  "Does he live in that house?"

  "Why, where else should he live?"

  "And the lady of the sighs----"

  "Is his niece, his housekeeper, or whatever else she may be. Weamuse ourselves with her because she is very tiresome, but we are notaccustomed to play tricks on his reverence, the Penitentiary."

  While this dialogue was being rapidly carried on, Pepe Rey saw, in frontof the terrace and very near him, a window belonging to the bombardedhouse open; he saw a smiling face appear at it--a familiar face--a facethe sight of which stunned him, terrified him, made him turn pale andtremble. It was that of Jacinto, who, interrupted in his grave studies,appeared at it with his pen behind his ear. His modest, fresh, andsmiling countenance, appearing in this way, had an auroral aspect.

  "Good-afternoon, Senor Don Jose," he said gayly.

  "Jacinto, Jacinto, I say!"

  "I am coming. I was saluting a friend."

  "Come away, come away!" cried Florentina, in alarm. "The Penitentiary isgoing up to Don Nominative's room and he will give us a blessing."

  "Yes, come away; let us close the door of the dining-room."

  They rushed pell-mell from the terrace.

  "You might have guessed that Jacinto would see you from his temple oflearning," said Tafetan to the Troyas.

  "Don Nominative is our friend," responded one of the girls. "From histemple of science he says a great many sweet things to us on the sly,and he blows us kisses besides."

  "Jacinto?" asked the engineer. "What the deuce is that name you gavehim?"

  "Don Nominative."

  The three girls burst out laughing.

  "We call him that because he is very learned."

  "No, because when we were little he was little too. But, yes, now Iremember. We used to play on the terrace, and we could hear him studyinghis lessons aloud."

  "Yes, and the whole blessed day he used to spend singling."

  "Declining, girl! That is what it was. He would go like this:'Nominative, rosa, Genitive, Dative, Accusative.'"

  "I suppose that I have my nickname too," said Pepe Rey.

  "Let Maria Juana tell you what it is," said Florentina, hiding herself.

  "I? Tell it to him you, Pepa."

  "You haven't any name yet, Don Jose."

  "But I shall have one. I promise you that I will come to hear what it isand to receive confirmation," said the young man, making a movement togo.

  "What, are you going?"

  "Yes. You have lost time enough already. To work, girls! Throwing stonesat the neighbors and the passers-by is not the most suitable occupationfor girls as pretty and as clever as you are. Well, good-by."

  And without waiting for further remonstrances, or answering thecivilities of the girls, he left the house hastily, leaving Don JuanTafetan behind him.

  The scene which he had just witnessed, the indignity suffered by thecanon, the unexpected appearance of the little doctor of laws, addedstill further to the perplexities, the anxieties, and the disagreeablepresentiments that already disturbed the soul of the unlucky engineer.He regretted with his whole soul having entered the house of the Troyas,and, resolving to employ his time better while his hypochondriasmlasted, he made a tour of inspection through the town.

  He visited the market, the Calle de la Triperia, where the principalstores were; he observed the various aspects presented by the industryand commerce of the great city of Orbajosa, and, finding only newmotives of weariness, he bent his steps in the direction of the Paseo delas Descalzas; but he saw there only a few stray dogs, for, owing to thedisagreeable wind which prevailed, the usual promenaders had remainedat home. He went to the apothecary's, where various species of ruminantfriends of progress, who chewed again and again the cud of the sameendless theme, were accustomed to meet, but there he was still morebored. Finally, as he was passing the cathedral, he heard the strainsof the organ and the beautiful chanting of the choir. He entered, kneltbefore the high altar, remembering the warnings which his aunt had givenhim about behaving with decorum in church; then visited a chapel, andwas about to enter another when an acolyte, warden, or beadle approachedhim, and with the rudest manner and in the most discourteous tone saidto him:

  "His lordship says that you are to get out of the church."

  The engineer felt the blood rush to his face. He obeyed without aword. Turned out everywhere, either by superior authority or by his owntedium, he had no resource but to return to his aunt's house, where hefound waiting for him:

  First, Uncle Licurgo, to announce a second lawsuit to him; second, SenorDon Cayetano, to read him another passage from his discourse on the"Genealogies of Orbajosa"; third, Caballuco, on some business which hehad not disclosed; fourth, Dona Perfecta and her affectionate smile, forwhat will appear in the following chapter.