Part 1 (2/2)
Many years ago I was stationed as doctor in a tiny Basque town, in Cestona. Sometimes, in summer, while going on my rounds among the villages I used to meet on the highway and on the cross-roads pa.s.sersby of a miserable aspect, persons with liver-complaint who were taking the waters at the neighbouring cure.
These people, with their leather-coloured skin, did not arouse any curiosity or interest in me. The middle-cla.s.s merchant or clerk from the big towns is repugnant to me, whether well or ill. I would exchange a curt salute with those liverish parties and go my way on my old nag.
One afternoon I was sitting in a wild part of the mountain, among big birch-trees, when a pair of strangers approached the spot where I was. They were not of the jaundiced and disagreeable type of the valetudinarians. He was a lanky young man, smooth-shaven, grave, and melancholy; she, a blond woman, most beautiful.
She was dressed in white and wore a straw hat with large flowers; she had a refined and gracious manner, eyes of blue, a very dark blue, and flame-coloured hair.
I surmised that they were a young married couple; but he seemed too indifferent to be the husband of so pretty a woman. In any event, they were not recently wed.
He bowed to me, and then said to his companion:
”Shall we sit down here?”
”Very well.”
They seated themselves on the half-rotten trunk of a tree.
”Are you on a trip?” he asked me, noticing my horse fastened to a branch.
”Yes. I am coming back from a visit.”
”Ah! Are you the town doctor?”
”Yes.”
”And do you live here, in Cestona?”
”Yes, I live here.”
”Alone?”
”Quite alone.”
”In an hotel?”
”No; in that house there down the road. Behold my house; that is it.”
”It must be hard to live among so many invalids!” he exclaimed.
”Why?” she asked. ”This gentleman may not have the same ideas as you.”
”I believe I have. To my mind, he is right. It is very hard to live here.”
”You can have n.o.body to talk to. That's evident.”
”Absolutely n.o.body. Just imagine; there is not a Liberal in the town; there are nothing but Carlists and Integrists.”
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