ing sort. The scenes of 'Tormento,' 'La de Bringas,' and
'Miau' are laid chiefly among the class of minor office-holders, with
whose manners the author shows an exhaustive familiarity, and each has
its peculiar tragic situation in itself. 'Realidad,' written once in
the form of a novel, and again as a drama, treats of the subject of a
wife's infidelity, as it might pass in real life, instead of in the
conventional and hackneyed way. Its title seems to propose to adhere
even closer to the exact truth than do the others. There come to mind,
in its suppressed passion and its calm, intellectual, and bitter
philosophy, suggestions both of Ibsen and Suderman. The banker Orozco,
a noble and reserved nature, does not slay his wife, does not banish
her from him, nor even make her reproaches. Augusta, on her side,
wonders if his mind is not giving way. This bitter commentary on life
is as near as her smaller mind can approach to a comprehension of his
magnanimous conduct. The same Augusta, earlier, has said in
conversation, "Real life is the greatest of all inventors; the only
one who is ever ready, fresh, and inexhaustible in resource." In these
books, however serious, the purpose does not obtrude to the detriment
of art; the reader is left free to draw his own conclusions, as from
events in actual life; the author ostensibly is neither for nor
against, and yet he leaves us in no doubt as to his decision, always a
moral and stimulating one.

The favorite scenes of Galdos's books are in Madrid and the small
suburban resorts round about it, or at the numerous mineral springs
which are so important a feature of Spanish summer life. He himself
lives at Madrid, but goes for the season to a summer place he owns on
the bold cliffs of the Bay of Biscay, at Santander. There, too he is
near to Pereda, between whom and himself a remarkable friendship
exists. A friendship so strong, warm, and long continued has been
recognized as a notable feature in the careers of both. It is the more
remarkable because except in literature, which both set above
everything else, he is violently opposed to most of the views of
Pereda--a conservative of the conservatives, even to the point of
preferring the absolutist pretender Don Carlos for king. Even at
Madrid and at Santander, however, Galdos's scenery is mere stage
setting; he does not describe nature sympathetically nor aim to
render local color in an accurate way. As the action must pass
somewhere, h