it has forgotten you?" inquired the rubicund
youth.

"I mean that it has been a year since I have received any news from
here, so that I find myself a stranger who does not yet know how and
when his father died."

This statement drew a sudden exclamation from the lieutenant.

"And where were you that you didn't telegraph?" asked Dona
Victorina. "When we were married we telegraphed to the Peninsula." [29]

"Senora, for the past two years I have been in the northern part of
Europe, in Germany and Russian Poland."

Doctor De Espadana, who until now had not ventured upon any
conversation, thought this a good opportunity to say something. "I--I
knew in S-spain a P-pole from W-warsaw, c-called S-stadtnitzki, if
I r-remember c-correctly. P-perhaps you s-saw him?" he asked timidly
and almost blushingly.

"It's very likely," answered Ibarra in a friendly manner, "but just
at this moment I don't recall him."

"B-but you c-couldn't have c-confused him with any one else," went
on the Doctor, taking courage. "He was r-ruddy as gold and t-talked
Spanish very b-badly."

"Those are good clues, but unfortunately while there I talked Spanish
only in a few consulates."

"How then did you get along?" asked the wondering Dona Victorina.

"The language of the country served my needs, madam."

"Do you also speak English?" inquired the Dominican, who had been in
Hongkong, and who was a master of pidgin-English, that adulteration
of Shakespeare's tongue used by the sons of the Celestial Empire.

"I stayed in England a year among people who talked nothing but
English."

"Which country of Europe pleased you the most?" asked the rubicund
youth.

"After Spain, my second fatherland, any country of free Europe."

"And you who seem to have traveled so much, tell us what do you
consider the most notable thing that you have seen?" inquired Laruja.

Ibarra appeared to reflect. "Notable--in what way?"

"For example, in regard to the life of the people--the social,
political, religious life--in general, in its essential features--as
a whole."

Ibarra paused thoughtfully before replying. "Frankly, I like everything
in those people, setting aside the national pride of each one. But
before visiting a country, I tried to familiarize myself with its
history, its Exodus, if I may so speak, and afterwards I found
everything quite natural. I have observed that the prosperity or
misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties