the
curate was of the firm belief that they could rely upon the two women
to keep their ears to the door. They would learn from them what had
been the topic, and what had been said.

When Don Quixote was alone with his squire, he expressed dismay over
his having told the housekeeper the knight had taken him from house
and home, when he knew perfectly well that he had gone of his own free
will. They had shared everything, he said; everything except blows,
where he had had a distinct advantage over his squire, having taken
ninety-nine out of a hundred beatings. This dividing of fortune,
Sancho thought, was quite as it should be, for of course knights
errant ought to share the greater benefits of the battle. Here Don
Quixote interrupted with a Latin quotation, which had an evil effect
on Sancho, for it made him retaliate with the blanket episode which to
him still seemed the height of all his suffering in the world. But
this attempt to belittle the fairness of his master's division of
honors in battle was speedily parried by Don Quixote, who maintained
that his squire's bodily suffering in the blanket was as nothing
compared with the painful agony of his own heart and soul when he had
seen his squire in such a predicament. And then he proceeded to
question Sancho as to public opinion of his deeds and valor.

Sancho was inclined to be reticent; but urged by Don Quixote--and
having been forgiven in advance for any vexation he might cause him by
telling the truth--he told of the variety of opinions that existed in
the village. This his master thought only natural; for when had the
world ever given full recognition to a genius or a great hero until
after he was dead? He pointed to all the great names he could
recollect in history that had been persecuted.

But Sancho had not come to the worst; and at last he found sufficient
courage to tell his master of a book entitled "The Ingenious Gentleman,
Don Quixote of La Mancha," which had already, he said, been spread
abroad. In this book not only Don Quixote, but he himself--under his own
name!--and the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso figured; and he was so stupefied
that he had to cross himself, for he could not imagine how everything
that had been told in the book--the most intimate happenings between Don
Quixote and himself--had come to be known to the author. Don Quixote
thought it was very plain that the adventures must have been reported by
some sage and enchanter; but Sancho told