do not now see
the former beauty of the Lord's worship. The Chapel-master says the
same thing, and he is indignant to see that on great festivals only
about half-a-dozen musicians take their place in the middle of the
choir. The young people who live in the Claverias have not our great
love for the mother-church; they complain of the shortness of their
salaries without considering that it is the temporalities that support
religion. If this goes on I should not be surprised to see this
popinjay and other rascals like him playing at 'Rayuelo'[1] in the
crossways in front of the choir. May God forgive me!"

[Footnote 1: A game of drawing lines.]

And the simple "Wooden Staff" made a gesture as though scandalised at
his own words. He went on:

"This young fellow you see here is not satisfied with his position in
life, and yet, though he is only a youth, he occupies the place his
poor father could only attain to after thirty years' service. He
aspires to be a toreador, and often on a Sunday he dares to take part
in the bull-fight in the bull-ring of Toledo. His mother came down,
dishevelled like a Magdalen, to tell me all about it, and I, thinking
that as his father was dead I ought to act in his place, I watched for
our gentleman as he returned tricked out smartly from the bull-ring,
and I thrashed him up the tower staircase to his rooms with the same
wooden staff that I use in the Cathedral, and he can tell you if I
have not a heavy hand when I am angry. Virgin of the Sagrario! A Luna
of the Holy Metropolitan Church lowering himself to be a bull-fighter!
The canons did laugh, and even the Lord Cardinal himself, as I have
been told, when they heard about the affair! A witty beneficiary has
since nicknamed him the 'Tato,'[1] and so they all call him now in
the Cathedral. So you see, brother, how much respect this rascal pays
to his family."

[Footnote 1: _Tato_--Armadillo.]

The "Silenciario"[1] attempted to annihilate the "Tato" with his
glance, but this latter only smiled without paying much attention,
either to his uncle's words or looks.

[Footnote 1: _Silenciario_--Officer appointed to keep silence.]

"You would hardly believe, Gabriel," he continued, "that this creature
often wants a bit of bread, and it is for this reason he commits all
these follies. In spite of his wrong-headedness, since the age of
twenty he has occupied the position of 'Perrero'[3] in the holy
church, he has obtained what in better times