ede to my humble request?" And the
speaker bowed respectfully, half smiling.

"You may speak, we shall hear you with pleasure!" cried his flattering
friends, who held him a great orator. The old men hemmed with
satisfaction and rubbed their hands.

Captain Basilio wiped the sweat from his brow and continued:

"Since your honors have been so kind and complaisant toward my humble
self as to grant me the right of speech before all others here present,
I shall profit by this permission, so generously accorded, and I shall
speak. I imagine in my imagination that I find myself in the midst of
the very venerable Roman senate--senatus populusque Romanus, as we said
in those good old times which, unhappily for humanity, will never come
back,--and I will ask the patres conscripti--as the sage Cicero would
say if he were in my place--I would ask them, since time presses,
and time is golden as Solomon says, that in this important matter
each one give his opinion clearly, briefly, and simply. I have done."

And satisfied with himself and with the attention of the house the
orator sat down, not without directing toward his friends a look
which plainly said: "Ha! Did I speak well? Ha!"

"Now the floor belongs to any one who--hem!" said the gobernadorcillo,
without being able to finish his sentence.

To judge by the general silence, no one wished to be one of the patres
conscripti. Don Filipo profited thereby and rose.

The Conservatives looked at one another with significant nods and
gestures.

"Senores, I will present my project for the fete," he began.

"We cannot accept it!" said an uncompromising Conservative.

"We vote against it!" cried another adversary.

Don Filipo could not repress a smile.

"We have a budget of 3,500 pesos. With this sum we can assure a
fete that will surpass any we have yet seen in our own province or
in others."

There were cries of "Impossible!" Such a pueblo spent 4,000 pesos;
another, 5,000!

"Listen, senores, and you will be convinced," continued Don Filipo,
unshaken. "I propose that in the middle of the plaza we erect a grand
theatre, costing 150 pesos."

"Not enough! Say 160!"

"Observe, gentlemen, 200 pesos for the theatre. I propose that
arrangements be made with the Comedy Company of Tondo for seven
representations, seven consecutive evenings, at 200 pesos an
evening. Seven representations, at 200 pesos each, makes 1,400
pesos. Observe, senor director, 1,400 pesos."

Old and