ouncil, of judgment, and of torture, wherein are
now gathered the officials of the town and its dependent villages. The
faction of old men does not mix with that of the youths, for they are
mutually hostile. They represent respectively the conservative and
the liberal parties, save that their disputes assume in the towns an
extreme character.

"The conduct of the gobernadorcillo fills me with distrust,"
Don Filipo, the teniente-mayor and leader of the liberal faction,
was saying to his friends. "It was a deep-laid scheme, this thing
of putting off the discussion of expenses until the eleventh
hour. Remember that we have scarcely eleven days left."

"And he has staved at the convento to hold a conference with the
curate, who is sick," observed one of the youths.

"It doesn't matter," remarked another. "We have everything
prepared. Just so the plan of the old men doesn't receive a majority--"

"I don't believe it will," interrupted Don Filipo, "as I shall present
the plan of the old men myself!"

"What! What are you saying?" asked his surprised hearers.

"I said that if I speak first I shall present the plan of our rivals."

"But what about our plan?"

"I shall leave it to you to present ours," answered Don Filipo
with a smile, turning toward a youthful cabeza de barangay. [67]
"You will propose it after I have been defeated."

"We don't understand you, sir," said his hearers, staring at him with
doubtful looks.

"Listen," continued the liberal leader in a low voice to several
near him. "This morning I met old Tasio and the old man said to me:
'Your rivals hate you more than they do your ideas. Do you wish that
a thing shall not be done? Then propose it yourself, and though it
were more useful than a miter, it would be rejected. Once they have
defeated you, have the least forward person in the whole gathering
propose what you want, and your rivals, in order to humiliate you,
will accept it.' But keep quiet about it."

"But--"

"So I will propose the plan of our rivals and exaggerate it to the
point of making it ridiculous. Ah, here come Senor Ibarra and the
schoolmaster."

These two young men saluted each of the groups without joining
either. A few moments later the gobernadorcillo, the very same
individual whom we saw yesterday carrying a bundle of candles, entered
with a look of disgust on his face. Upon his entrance the murmurs
ceased, every one sat down, and silence was gradually established,
as he t