lessons, so much; dress uniform, so much; every day ditto, so much,"
etc., etc.

While his _senor padre_ was lecturing him in an unnaturally high voice
on this subject, his older brother was gnashing his teeth like one in
torment; from time to time he gave utterance to pitiful groans, as
though some demon had come that very moment to throw more coal in the
furnace where they were roasting him. At last, when he succeeded in
getting his breath, he exclaimed in a low voice:--

"The idea of a man having to humiliate himself from morning till night
engaged in handling fat and lard in order that what he earns should be
wasted by a fellow like this, in folderols and glasses of cognac!"

"It shall not be so any longer, Rafael! I swear it shall not!" roared
the father. "After to-day this lazybones shall help you in the factory.
There he will have a chance to learn how to earn his bread and butter!"

The ex-cadet was annihilated. He, a gentleman cadet in the most
aristocratic corps of the army, to be suddenly transferred into the
service of a candle factory! This for Utrilla was the height of
degradation. He said nothing for a few moments: at last he spoke
solemnly and deliberately in his deep bass:--

"If it has come to this, that my dignity must be lowered by making me a
factory foreman, it would be better that I should be taken out into the
field and shot down with half a dozen bullets!"

"Knocked down with half a dozen sticks; that's what you ought to have
done to you, you good-for-nothing idler! Just wait! just wait!"

And the worthy manufacturer glanced angrily around the room, and seeing
a reed cane leaning against the wall, he sprang to get it. But Achilles,
he of the winged feet, had already darted out of the room, and in half a
dozen leaps had reached his chamber.

Once across the threshold, he bolted the door with marvellous dexterity,
and after listening breathlessly with his ear at the key-hole, in order
to make sure that Peleus had not passed the middle of the corridor, he
felt safe to give himself up to meditation.

He began to promenade up and down, across the room, from corner to
corner, with his hands in his pockets, his head sunk and his shoulders
lifted, thinking seriously how ...

But his sword was constantly thumping against the furniture and getting
between his legs, and making it hard for him to walk; he took it off and
flung it in military disgust on the sofa.

He came to the conclusion that t