The Joy of Captain Ribot

other-in-law had lost?) At all events, I was selfish enough to rejoice at his absence. During the trip out and the hours that we stayed at the place, I observed something in Cristina's manner and

aw that she kept silence and was grave although without any apparent cause. Her face was slightly flushed. My imagination suggested to me the idea that it was because of the thoughts drifting through her soul and the timidity that they inspired. On the dark and gloomy

ntering, his pipe in his mouth, seated among several of his friends, whom he was haranguing in his own solemn and judicial manner. He salu

ict me openly, but I understood by his gestures more than by his words that he looked upon all that as childishness unworthy a serious and mature man like himself. For one who could appreciate them, Valencia held pleasures more highly flav

" he asked me in serious tones, although

have s

nd also the celebra

ls

siness yet

onfused, as if he had said something offensive about one of my family, and I responded vaguely that certain enterprises turn out well, and oth

d with sarcastic gravity. "Emilio's enterprises are always bril

clever man," I remarked

t a bit of it. His is a practical, and h

that," I replied smiling, to turn his s

e in his own fashion, the only g

air of immense superiority with which that man talked over others, the penetration with which he uncovered the hidden motives of all their acts, the incontrovertible force of his arguments, the sorrowful divination with which he formulated them. It was such that I could not do less than acknowledge to myself that every one o

"I have no room for doubt that Emilio is

hand-shaking, "but confess that a litt

ouse of Martí, but on the way my thoughts took a sadly audacious direction. I was filled with a moral suffering, that had since morning afflicted me; this, ming

softened and moved, the sight whereof had made me happy all day long. In vain I invoked the celestial felicity that sooner or later must descend upon me. Whether it was illusion or reality, I thought that the fruit was ripening, and already responded with delicate tremors to the continued shaking that my hand gave the bough. Perhaps it would be long in falling into my lap. But I ought to confess that this alluring future p

would have ruined him to support her son in his idleness; his friend, whom he looked upon as a brother, deceived him; his brother-in-law, upon whom he heaped kindnesses, ridiculed him publicly. He had no heart near him that was loving and faithful except that of his wife. And I, an outsider, to whom he had offered so much frank and affectionate hospitality, I would snatch it away! The idea weighed down my heart, made me feel myself disgrace

. I had recourse to chloral, more chloral than I had ever taken in nights like this of sleeplessness and struggle. I renounced my desires once for all, my hopes, the enjoyments of love and the flatteries of self-love. I entered into my spirit with a lash and drove from it the perfidy of will which, for the few pleasures that it gives us, causes us so many burning wounds. This cost me labor, for it hid itself away in

were Do?a Amparo, Isabelita, Do?a Clara, a dressmaker, and a domestic. The first question that was asked me was where I had been the night before. I excused myself with a headache. Cristina, who was embroidering near the balcony, did not

he handkerchief from my pocket, and in a voice so low that the company co

thinking that it was my own. Until I got home I

shed a vivid carmine; she took with a trembling hand the handkerchief th

es of pagan antiquity in general! At least I live in the intimate conviction (and this thought makes me vastly gre

y soul was profoundly moved and it should be declared among these frank confessions that, although I felt no pride

assed as merrily as ever. But my gayety was only feigned; although I wore my

All the afternoon she was thoughtful and seriou

nity to turn the key that locked up my thoughts a

ntitled "El Castellano Viejo." We all laughed and applauded the gifts and ingenuity of the great satirical writer. From this we went on to talk

kill himself?"

kill themselves, for-a woman

lves on account of money," exclaimed the yo

senses, but there are many more of t

s she married or single-th

return was announced, and that then she, repentant or timid, made known to him her resolution to brea

leave life when he was so young and when the

ady married,

aimed the women indign

several c

hung! The scoundrel should be cast out with

observed that she also was married, and that th

ter men. Because they are deceived by honeyed words. Because m

uicidal egotism than of high and delicate love. If he had really loved this woman, he would have respected her penitence, would have considered her all the more worthy of adoration, and would have found in his own heart and in the nobleness of the adored being re

finger glittering with rings, delivered a complete course in philosophy. His was a well-linked chain of reasoning, elegant sentences, a great abundance of psychological, biological, and sociological facts-all to show that "man is irrevocably fettered to

and strengthens us; it is the sole guarantee of progress. He who, led away by a mad notion, strives to suppress antag

her with indefatigable devotion; the greater religiously swallow up the less. You may rest assured, Se?or Castell, that the great machine of the universe will not suffer any damage from their sins. But I confess frankly that I have never become accustomed to these proceedings, wherein marine animals have the advantage over terrestrial ones. Some nights in summer, on the bridge of

r are you the first who h

visions that make life joyful. For life, Se?or Castell, however balanced and physiological it may be, is a sad and insipid thing when the imagination is not moved to adorn it. If capricious fortune should ever drag me, like Larra, into being enamored of a woman who belonged to another" (here my voice did not change in the least), "I should not perfidiously attempt to gain her affection awa

ow I saw her rise hastily and go to the piano to conceal her emotion. Do?a Clara,

the least able to argue with Enrique; but you have answered him, and said things ve

tor. And if in that moment the directors of the Athen?um at Madrid had invited me there, I think I should not h