than the wise man in
another's. Is it not so, Senor Don Jose? Of course, you mustn't imagine,
even remotely, that I say this on your account. Not at all! Of course
not! I know that we have before us one of the most eminent young men of
modern Spain, a man who would be able to transform into fertile lands
our arid wastes. And I am not at all angry because you sing us the same
old song about the English ploughs and arboriculture and silviculture.
Not in the least. Men of such great, such very great merit, may be
excused for the contempt which they manifest for our littleness. No, no,
my friend; no, no, Senor Don Jose! you are entitled to say any thing you
please, even to tell us that we are not much better than Kaffirs."

This philippic, concluded in a marked tone of irony, and all of it
impertinent enough, did not please the young man; but he refrained from
manifesting the slightest annoyance and continued the conversation,
endeavoring to avoid as far as possible the subjects in which the
over-sensitive patriotism of the canon might find cause of offence. The
latter rose when Dona Perfecta began to speak to her nephew about family
matters, and took a few turns about the room.

This was a spacious and well-lighted apartment, the walls of which were
covered with an old-fashioned paper whose flowers and branches, although
faded, preserved their original pattern, thanks to the cleanliness which
reigned in each and every part of the dwelling. The clock, from the
case of which hung, uncovered, the apparently motionless weights and
the voluble pendulum, perpetually repeating No, no, occupied, with its
variegated dial, the most prominent place among the solid pieces of
furniture of the dining-room, the adornment of the walls being completed
by a series of French engravings representing the exploits of the
conqueror of Mexico, with prolix explanations at the foot of each
concerning a Ferdinand Cortez, and a Donna Marine, as little true to
nature as were the figures delineated by the ignorant artist. In the
space between the two glass doors which communicated with the garden
was an apparatus of brass, which it is not necessary to describe further
than to say that it served to support a parrot, which maintained itself
on it with the air of gravity and circumspection peculiar to those
animals, taking note of everything that went on. The hard and ironical
expression of the parrot tribe, their green coats, their red caps,
their yello