hat craniums----"

We spare our readers other comments of this nature. Let us enter the
home of a private citizen, and as we know few people at Manila, we
will knock at the door of Captain Tinong, the friendly and hospitable
gentleman whom we saw inviting Ibarra, with so much insistence,
to honor his house with a visit.

In his rich and spacious drawing-room, at Tondo, Captain Tinong is
seated in a great arm-chair, passing his hand despairingly across
his brow; while his weeping wife, the Capitana Tinchang, reads him
a sermon, listened to by their two daughters, who are seated in a
corner, mute with stupefaction.

"Ah, Virgin of Antipolo!" cried the wife. "Ah, Virgin of the Rosary;
I told you so! I told you so! Ah, Virgin of Carmel! Ah!"

"Why, no! You didn't tell me anything," Captain Tinong finally
ventured to reply. "On the contrary, you said I did well to keep up the
friendship with Captain Tiago, and to go to his house, because--because
he was rich; and you said----"

"What did I say? I didn't say it! I didn't say anything! Ah, if you
had listened to me!"

"Now you throw the blame back on me!" said the captain bitterly,
striking the arm of his chair with his fist. "Didn't you say I did
well to invite him to dinner, because, as he was rich----"

"It is true I said that, because--because it couldn't be helped;
you had already invited him; and you did nothing but praise him. Don
Ibarra here, and Don Ibarra there, and Don Ibarra on all sides. But
I didn't advise you to see him or to speak to him at the dinner. That
you cannot deny!"

"Did I know, for instance, that he was to be there?"

"You ought to have known it!"

"How, if I wasn't even acquainted with him?"

"You ought to have been acquainted with him!"

"But, Tinchang, if it was the first time I had ever seen him or heard
him spoken of?"

"You ought to have seen him before, you ought to have heard him
spoken of; that's what you are a man for! And now, you will be sent
into exile, our goods will be confiscated----Oh, if I were a man! if
I were a man!"

"And if you were a man," asked the vexed husband, "what would you do?"

"What? Why, to-day, this very day, I should present myself to the
captain-general, and offer to fight against the rebels, this very day!"

"But didn't you read what the Diario says? Listen! 'The infamous and
abortive treason has been repressed with energy, force, and vigor,
and the rebellious enemies of the country and their