ow what I should have done in your place!"

Then, quickly changing the subject, he said:

"They tell me you have just returned from Europe. You were in Madrid?"

"Yes, senor, several months."

"How happens it that you return without bringing me a letter of
recommendation?"

"Senor," replied Ibarra, bowing, "because, having heard there of the
character of Your Excellency, I thought a letter of recommendation
would not only be unnecessary, but might even offend you; the Filipinos
are all recommended to you."

A smile curled the lips of the old soldier, who replied slowly,
as though meditating and weighing his words:

"I cannot help being flattered that you think so. And yet, young
man, you should know what a weight rests on our shoulders. Here we
old soldiers have to be all--king, ministers of state, of war, of
justice, of everything; and yet, in every event, we have to consult
the far-off mother country, which often must approve or reject our
propositions with blind justice. If in Spain itself, with the advantage
of everything near and familiar, all is imperfect and defective,
the wonder is that all here is not revolution. It is not lack of good
will in the governors, but we must use the eyes and arms of strangers,
of whom, for the most part, we can know nothing, and who, instead of
serving their country, may be serving only their own interests. The
monks are a powerful aid, but they are not sufficient. You inspire
great interest in me, and I would not have the imperfection of our
governmental system tell in anyway against you. I cannot watch over
any one; every one cannot come to me. Tell me, can I be useful to
you in any way? Have you any request to make?"

Ibarra reflected.

"Senor," he replied, "my great desire is for the happiness of my
country, and I would that happiness might be due to the efforts
of our mother country and of my fellow-citizens united to her and
united among themselves by the eternal bonds of common views and
interests. What I would ask, the Government alone can give, and that
after many continuous years of labor and of well-conceived reforms."

The general gave him a long look, which Ibarra bore naturally,
without timidity, without boldness.

"You are the first man with whom I've spoken in this country," cried
His Excellency, stretching out his hand.

"Your Excellency has seen only those who while away their lives
in cities; he has not visited the falsely maligned cabins of our
vi