ear the operation. You know that the roots can
grow only by means of the leaves, so that if you take the leaves from a
tree--"

"Ah, Senor Don Jose," cried the Penitentiary, with a frank laugh,
approaching the two young people and bowing to them, "are you giving
lessons in horticulture? _Insere nunc Meliboee piros; pone ordine
vites_, as the great singer of the labors of the field said. 'Graft the
pear-tree, dear Meliboeus, trim the vines.' And how are we now, Senor
Don Jose?"

The engineer and the canon shook hands. Then the latter turned round,
and indicating by a gesture a young man who was behind him, said,
smiling:

"I have the pleasure of presenting to you my dear Jacintillo--a great
rogue, a feather-head, Senor Don Jose."

CHAPTER IX

THE DISAGREEMENT CONTINUES TO INCREASE, AND THEREAFTER TO BECOME DISCORD

Close beside the black cassock was a fresh and rosy face, that seemed
fresher and rosier from the contrast. Jacinto saluted our hero, not
without some embarrassment.

He was one of those precocious youths whom the indulgent university
sends prematurely forth into the arena of life, making them fancy that
they are men because they have received their doctor's degree. Jacinto
had a round, handsome face with rosy cheeks, like a girl's, and without
any beard save the down which announced its coming. In person he was
plump and below the medium height. His age was a little over twenty. He
had been educated from childhood under the direction of his excellent
and learned uncle, which is the same as saying that the twig had not
become crooked in the growing. A severe moral training had kept him
always straight, and in the fulfilment of his scholastic duties he
had been almost above reproach. Having concluded his studies at the
university with astonishing success, for there was scarcely a class in
which he did not take the highest honors, he entered on the practice of
his profession, promising, by his application and his aptitude for
the law, to maintain fresh and green in the forum the laurels of the
lecture-hall.

At times he was as mischievous as a boy, at times as sedate as a man.
In very truth, if Jacinto had not had a little, and even a great deal of
liking for pretty girls, his uncle would have thought him perfect. The
worthy man preached to him unceasingly on this point, hastening to
clip the wings of every audacious fancy. But not even this mundane
inclination of the young man could cool the grea