Part 8 (2/2)
”Well,” said the canon, laughing, ”it all reduces itself to this, that we are descended from monkeys. If he had said that only in the case of certain people I know, he would have been right.”
”The theory of natural selection,” said Jacinto emphatically, ”has, they say, a great many partisans in Germany.”
”I do not doubt it,” said the ecclesiastic. ”In Germany they would have no reason to be sorry if that theory were true, as far as Bismarck is concerned.”
Dona Perfecta and Senor Don Cayetano at this moment made their appearance.
”What a beautiful evening!” said the former. ”Well, nephew, are you getting terribly bored?”
”I am not bored in the least,” responded the young man.
”Don't try to deny it. Cayetano and I were speaking of that as we came along. You are bored, and you are trying to hide it. It is not every young man of the present day who would have the self-denial to spend his youth, like Jacinto, in a town where there are neither theatres, nor opera bouffe, nor dancers, nor philosophers, nor athenaeums, nor magazines, nor congresses, nor any other kind of diversions or entertainments.”
”I am quite contented here,” responded Pepe. ”I was just now saying to Rosario that I find this city and this house so pleasant that I would like to live and die here.”
Rosario turned very red and the others were silent. They all sat down in a summer-house, Jacinto hastening to take the seat on the left of the young girl.
”See here, nephew, I have a piece of advice to give you,” said Dona Perfecta, smiling with that expression of kindness that seemed to emanate from her soul, like the aroma from the flower. ”But don't imagine that I am either reproving you or giving you a lesson--you are not a child, and you will easily understand what I mean.”
”Scold me, dear aunt, for no doubt I deserve it,” replied Pepe, who was beginning to accustom himself to the kindnesses of his father's sister.
”No, it is only a piece of advice. These gentlemen, I am sure, will agree that I am in the right.”
Rosario was listening with her whole soul.
”It is only this,” continued Dona Perfecta, ”that when you visit our beautiful cathedral again, you will endeavor to behave with a little more decorum while you are in it.”
”Why, what have I done?”
”It does not surprise me that you are not yourself aware of your fault,”
said his aunt, with apparent good humor. ”It is only natural; accustomed as you are to enter athenaeums and clubs, and academies and congresses without any ceremony, you think that you can enter a temple in which the Divine Majesty is in the same manner.”
”But excuse me, senora,” said Pepe gravely, ”I entered the cathedral with the greatest decorum.”
”But I am not scolding you, man; I am not scolding you. If you take it in that way I shall have to remain silent. Excuse my nephew, gentlemen.
A little carelessness, a little heedlessness on his part is not to be wondered at. How many years is it since you set foot in a sacred place before?”
”Senora, I a.s.sure you----But, in short, let my religious ideas be what they may, I am in the habit of observing the utmost decorum in church.”
”What I a.s.sure you is----There, if you are going to be offended I won't go on. What I a.s.sure you is that a great many people noticed it this morning. The Senores de Gonzalez, Dona Robustiana, Serafinita--in short, when I tell you that you attracted the attention of the bishop----His lords.h.i.+p complained to me about it this afternoon when I was at my cousin's. He told me that he did not order you to be put out of the church only because you were my nephew.”
Rosario looked anxiously at her cousin, trying to read in his countenance, before he uttered it, the answer he would make to these charges.
”No doubt they mistook me for some one else.”
”No, no! it was you. But there, don't get angry! We are talking here among friends and in confidence. It was you. I saw you myself.”
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