The Torrent

ngs under his eyes, as if he had spent a bad night. Nor could his political friends guess, that afternoon

as all averred, a landslide for don Rafael Brull. The intimate friend and lieutenant of the House of Brull was the best informed. If the elections took place on the date indicated by the newspapers, Rafael would still be five or six months short of his twenty-fifth birth-day. But don Andrés had written to Madrid to consult the Party leaders. The prime minister was agreeabl

ction time, when the chance would come for his free life in Madrid. Now that it was at hand he wa

nd at cards before coming to sit down at Rafael's side. That was a canny habit of don Andrés. He liked to be se

and the ivory balls less noisy on the green cloth, don Andrés considered his game at an end, and took a chair in

n, but all the while he was preparing mentally a quest

e made up

San Salvador, I met a fine-looking woman who seems to

shed his chair back from the table, so that

woman got in the day before yesterday, and everybody's seen her already. She's the talk of the town. You were

l, meanwhile, did not see the joke-

y call her-a little lady who has an orchard close by the river and lives in the Blue House, that's always under water when the Júcar floods? She once owned the pla

le-mindedness and good nature. He could see her now, with a rosary usually in her hand, a camp-stool under her arm, and her mantilla drawn down over her face. As she passed the Brull door on her

I remember do?a

her, the doctor. The girl has been all over the world singing grand opera. You were probabl

ollections, the bugaboo of many nights of terror and alarm, when he would hide his trembling head under

and go right to sleep I'l

as young Brull evoked it from the hazes of his early years. Perhaps the Doctor had been a good fellow, who knows! At any rate Rafael thought so, as his mind now reverted to that distant period of his life; but he could still remember the fright he had felt as a child, when once in

he name of Darwin, who claimed than men were related to monkeys, a view that gave much amusement to the indignant do?a Bernarda, who repeated all the jokes on the crazy notion her favorite preacher cracked of a Sunday in the pulpit. And such a sorcerer! Hardly a disease could resist Doctor Moreno. He worked wonders in the suburbs, among the lower scum; and those laborers adored him with as much fear as affection. He succeeded with people who had been given up by the older doctors, wiseacres in long frocks and with gold-headed canes,

. Lower scum!..." do?a

gloomy his father had been about that time, hardly even leaving the patio. Had it not been for the respect his hairy claws and his frowning eye

r foot. In the streets people were singing the Marseillaise, waving tricolored bunting, and hurrahing for the Republic. Candles were being burned before pictures of Castelar. And meantime that fanatical Doctor, a Republican, was preaching on the public squares, explaining the "rights of man" at daytime meetings in the country and

n front of the Doctor's house, where they would cheer, and cheer. "How long, oh Lord, how long?" And though nobody insulted her nor asked her for so much as a pin, she talked of moving to some other country. Those peo

bad as you imagine. They'll sing their Marseillaise for a time and shout themselves hoarse. Why shouldn't they

y against Doctor Moreno. The one thing that seemed to bother him was that, as soon as the Republic was proclaimed, the Doctor's friends were eager to send him as a deputy to the Constituent Assembly of '73. That lunatic a d

d fighting. His deep convictions impelled him to mingle with the masses, and speak in public places-where he proved to be a successful agitator, but he refused to join party organizations; and after a lecture or an oration, he would spend days and days with his books and magazines, a

iety! But that did not prevent crowds from thronging the streets at night, cautioning pedestrians to walk more softly as they approached his house; nor from opening their windows to hear better when that devil of a doctor would be playing his violonce

s ears seemed to tingle again with the diabolical melodies that had floated

usic. Most charming manners he had, however. He married a beautiful orchard-girl, who happened to be very poor. He said the marriage was ... for the purpose of perpetuating the species-those were his very words-of having strong, sound, healthy children. For that he didn't need to bother about his wife's social posi

riosity is the characteristic of the people of small places, where the keenest

usic up out of his head for people to play in theatres or for lunatics like Moreno to amuse themselves with. Well, when his daughter was born the Doctor wondered what name to give her. As a tribute to Emilio Castelar, his idol, he felt he ought to call her Emilia: but he liked the sound of Leonora better (no, not Lenor, but Leo

e! Let an enemy of law and order or sound religion just raise his voice and he was off on his way to Fernando Pio in no time. Well, what a racket the Doctor raised! He sat himself down in that church-first time he'd ever been in the place-and insisted that his daughter be labeled as he dir

id Brahmins," in

he went out he said to the priest: "She will be 'Leonora' for reasons that please her father, and which you wouldn't understand even if I were to explain them to you." What a hubbub followed! Don Ramón and I had to interfe

he keep?" asked a

en't seen her yet. They say she's a stunning beauty, like her mother, who was a blonde, and the handsomest girl in all these parts

another. "Is it true, as they sai

noons he would go for a walk in the suburbs, or a stroll over to his sister's orchard, near the river-always with Leonora at his side. She was now about eleven years old. All his affection was centered on her. Poor Doctor! How things had changed from the days when his mobs would meet the troops shot for shot in the streets of Alcira, shouting vivas for the Federal Republic!... In his solitude and in all the dejection coming from the defeat of his perverted ideas, he took more than ever to music. He had but one joy left him. Leonora loved music as much as he. She learned her lessons rapidly; and soon could accompany her father's violoncello on the piano.

his recollections, and a

onged half to the Doctor and half to her-sent him every cent of the money, and moved to the orchard. Ever since then she's been coming in to mass and to Forty Hours in all sorts of weather. I could learn nothing for certain after that. People lie so, you see. Some say poor Moreno shot himself because his daughter left him when she got placed on the stage; others say that he died like a dog in a poorhouse. The only sure thing is that he died and that his daughter went on having a great time all over those countries over there. The way she went it! They even say she had a king or two. As for money! Say, boys, there are ways and ways of earning it, and ways and ways of spending it! The fellow who knows all about that side of her is the barber Cupido. He imagines he's an artist, because he plays the guitar; and besides he has a Republican grouch, and was a great admirer of he

e an old faun, gave a sly nudge at Rafael, who

man. "Accustomed as she is to flitting about the wor

She'll stay until she gets bored, he says. And to be in less danger of that

Daughter of that descamisado, as my father calls him because he died without a stitch on his back! And all people say of them! Last night her arrival was the subject of conversation in every decent home in

és laugh

t-a silly old thing, whatever her many virtues may be. They say she's brought a French maid along.... But she's beginning to cry 'sour grapes' already. Do you know what she said to Cupido yesterday? That she had come here with the idea of living all by herself, just to get awa

rinkled forehead of don Andrés, tra

a try for her, if only to prick the bubble of her conceit and show her there are people here, too. They say

n could resist him. But Rafael had lived through the previous afternoon, and the words seemed very bitter pills. Don Andr

pay any attention to what I say. Yo

ation of austere, uncompromising virtue, cha

ion in a different direction, "is that now everybody remembers the Doctor's daughter.

town, or something that that silly do?a Pepa would let drop, while telling inquisitive people about the glories her niece was winning abroad; anyhow, all a heap of lies that were invented I don't know where or by whom. They kept all that quiet, banking the fire, so to speak. If it hadn't got into the girl's head to come back to Alcira, you would never have heard of her probably. But now she's here, and they're telling all they know, or

had been born within a few hundred yards of his own birthplace. They had passed their childhood years almost side by s

, lived outside its circle of influence, in the open country; she

tered her house. But Brull did not dare, for fear of gossip. His dignity as a party leader forbade his entering that barbershop where the walls were papered with copies of "Revolution" and where a picture of Pi y Marg

ch. Finally he sauntered off toward the orchards, following the riverbank slowly along, with his gaze fixed on that blue house, wh

lding shining gowns of delicate colors. She was shaking the prima donna's skirts

the reddish hair whom he had seen th

liage, despite the distance. He felt a sudden timorousness, like a child caught redhand

ve approached the Blue House seemed like progres