ilding
companies, set out on a tour through Germany and England, for the
purpose of study. His father's fortune, (as large as it is possible for
a fortune which has only an honorable law-office for its source to be in
Spain), permitted him to free himself in a short time from the yoke
of material labor. A man of exalted ideas and with an ardent love for
science, he found his purest enjoyment in the observation and study of
the marvels by means of which the genius of the age furthers at the same
time the culture and material comfort and the moral progress of man.

On returning from his tour his father informed him that he had an
important project to communicate to him. Pepe supposed that it concerned
some bridge, dockyard, or, at the least, the draining of some marsh,
but Don Juan soon dispelled his error, disclosing to him his plan in the
following words:

"This is March, and Perfecta's quarterly letter has not failed to
come. Read it, my dear boy, and if you can agree to what that holy
and exemplary woman, my dear sister, says in it, you will give me the
greatest happiness I could desire in my old age. If the plan does not
please you, reject it without hesitation, for, although your refusal
would grieve me, there is not in it the shadow of constraint on my part.
It would be unworthy of us both that it should be realized through the
coercion of an obstinate father. You are free either to accept or to
reject it, and if there is in your mind the slightest repugnance to it,
arising either from your inclinations or from any other cause, I do not
wish you to do violence to your feelings on my account."

Pepe laid the letter on the table after he had glanced through it, and
said quietly:

"My aunt wishes me to marry Rosario!"

"She writes accepting joyfully my idea," said his father, with emotion.
"For the idea was mine. Yes, it is a long time, a very long time since
it occurred to me; but I did not wish to say anything to you until
I knew what your sister might think about it. As you see, Perfecta
receives my plan with joy; she says that she too had thought of it, but
that she did not venture to mention it to me, because you are--you have
seen what she says--because you are a young man of very exceptional
merit and her daughter is a country girl, without either a brilliant
education or worldly attractions. Those are her words. My poor sister!
How good she is! I see that you are not displeased; I see that this
project o