say
to me."

Her cousin, mathematician though he was, understood.

"My dear cousin," said Pepe, "how you must have been bored this
afternoon by our disputes! Heaven knows that for my own pleasure I would
not have played the pedant as I did; the canon was to blame for it. Do
you know that that priest appears to me to be a singular character?"

"He is an excellent person!" responded Rosarito, showing the delight she
felt at being able to give her cousin all the data and the information
that he might require.

"Oh, yes! An excellent person. That is very evident!"

"When you know him a little better, you will see that."

"That he is beyond all price! But it is enough for him to be your friend
and your mamma's to be my friend also," declared the young man. "And
does he come here often?"

"Every day. He spends a great deal of his time with us," responded
Rosarito ingenuously. "How good and kind he is! And how fond he is of
me!"

"Come! I begin to like this gentleman."

"He comes in the evening, besides, to play tresillo," continued the
young girl; "for every night some friends meet here--the judge of the
lower court, the attorney-general, the dean, the bishop's secretary, the
alcalde, the collector of taxes, Don Inocencio's nephew----"

"Ah! Jacintito, the lawyer."

"Yes; he is a simple-hearted boy, as good as gold. His uncle adores him.
Since he returned from the university with his doctor's tassel--for he
is a doctor in two sciences, and he took honors besides--what do you
think of that?--well, as I was saying, since his return, he has come
here very often with his uncle. Mamma too is very fond of him. He is a
very sensible boy. He goes home early with his uncle; he never goes at
night to the Casino, nor plays nor squanders money, and he is employed
in the office of Don Lorenzo Ruiz, who is the best lawyer in Orbajosa.
They say Jacinto will be a great lawyer, too."

"His uncle did not exaggerate when he praised him, then," said Pepe. "I
am very sorry that I talked all that nonsense I did about lawyers. I was
very perverse, was I not, my dear cousin?"

"Not at all; for my part, I think you were quite right."

"But, really, was I not a little--"

"Not in the least, not in the least!"

"What a weight you have taken off my mind! The truth is that I found
myself constantly, and without knowing why, in distressing opposition to
that venerable priest. I am very sorry for it."

"What I think," said Rosarito, l