t affection which
our worthy canon bore the charming offspring of his dear niece, Maria
Remedios. Where the young lawyer was concerned, every thing else
must give way. Even the grave and methodical habits of the worthy
ecclesiastic were altered when they interfered with the affairs of his
precocious pupil. That order and regularity, apparently as fixed as the
laws of a planetary system, were interrupted whenever Jacinto was ill
or had to take a journey. Useless celibacy of the clergy! The Council of
Trent prohibits them from having children of their own, but God--and not
the Devil, as the proverb says--gives them nephews and nieces in order
that they may know the tender anxieties of paternity.

Examining impartially the qualities of this clever boy, it was
impossible not to recognize that he was not wanting in merit. His
character was in the main inclined to uprightness, and noble
actions awakened a frank admiration in his soul. With respect to his
intellectual endowments and his social knowledge, they were sufficient
to enable him to become in time one of those notabilities of whom
there are so many in Spain; he might be what we take delight in calling
hyperbolically a distinguished patrician, or an eminent public man;
species which, owing to their great abundance, are hardly appreciated
at their just value. In the tender age in which the university degree
serves as a sort of solder between boyhood and manhood, few young
men--especially if they have been spoiled by their masters--are free
from an offensive pedantry, which, if it gives them great importance
beside their mamma's arm-chair, makes them very ridiculous when they
are among grave and experienced men. Jacinto had this defect, which was
excusable in him, not only because of his youth, but also because his
worthy uncle stimulated his puerile vanity by injudicious praise.

When the introduction was over they resumed their walk. Jacinto was
silent. The canon, returning to the interrupted theme of the _pyros_
which were to be grafted and the _vites_ which were to be trimmed, said:

"I am already aware that Senor Don Jose is a great agriculturist."

"Not at all; I know nothing whatever about the subject," responded
the young man, observing with no little annoyance the canon's mania of
supposing him to be learned in all the sciences.

"Oh, yes! a great agriculturist," continued the Penitentiary; "but on
agricultural subjects, don't quote the latest treatises to m