Part 34 (1/2)

With a graceful gesture, as though he were in his own house, he invited the warrant officer and the corporal to enter the carriage that waited at the door.

”To the Civil Government!” he ordered the cochero.

Now that Basilio had again regained his composure, he told Makaraig the object of his visit. The rich student did not wait for him to finish, but seized his hand. ”Count on me, count on me, and to the festivities celebrating our graduation we'll invite these gentlemen,”

he said, indicating the corporal and the warrant officer.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE FRIAR AND THE FILIPINO

Vox populi, vox Dei

We left Isagani haranguing his friends. In the midst of his enthusiasm an usher approached him to say that Padre Fernandez, one of the higher professors, wished to talk with him.

Isagani's face fell. Padre Fernandez was a person greatly respected by him, being the _one_ always excepted by him whenever the friars were attacked.

”What does Padre Fernandez want?” he inquired.

The usher shrugged his shoulders and Isagani reluctantly followed him.

Padre Fernandez, the friar whom we met in Los Banos, was waiting in his cell, grave and sad, with his brows knitted as if he were in deep thought. He arose as Isagani entered, shook hands with him, and closed the door. Then he began to pace from one end of the room to the other. Isagani stood waiting for him to speak.

”Senor Isagani,” he began at length with some emotion, ”from the window I've heard you speaking, for though I am a consumptive I have good ears, and I want to talk with you. I have always liked the young men who express themselves clearly and have their own way of thinking and acting, no matter that their ideas may differ from mine. You young men, from what I have heard, had a supper last night. Don't excuse yourself--”

”I don't intend to excuse myself!” interrupted Isagani.

”So much the better--it shows that you accept the consequences of your actions. Besides, you would do ill in retracting, and I don't blame you, I take no notice of what may have been said there last night, I don't accuse you, because after all you're free to say of the Dominicans what seems best to you, you are not a pupil of ours--only this year have we had the pleasure of having you, and we shall probably not have you longer. Don't think that I'm going to invoke considerations of grat.i.tude; no, I'm not going to waste my time in stupid vulgarisms. I've had you summoned here because I believe that you are one of the few students who act from conviction, and, as I like men of conviction, I'm going to explain myself to Senor Isagani.”

Padre Fernandez paused, then continued his walk with bowed head, his gaze riveted on the floor.

”You may sit down, if you wish,” he remarked. ”It's a habit of mine to walk about while talking, because my ideas come better then.”

Isagani remained standing, with his head erect, waiting for the professor to get to the point of the matter.

”For more than eight years I have been a professor here,” resumed Padre Fernandez, still continuing to pace back and forth, ”and in that time I've known and dealt with more than twenty-five hundred students. I've taught them, I've tried to educate them, I've tried to inculcate in them principles of justice and of dignity, and yet in these days when there is so much murmuring against us I've not seen one who has the temerity to maintain his accusations when he finds himself in the presence of a friar, not even aloud in the presence of any numbers. Young men there are who behind our backs calumniate us and before us kiss our hands, with a base smile begging kind looks from us! Bah! What do you wish that we should do with such creatures?”

”The fault is not all theirs, Padre,” replied Isagani. ”The fault lies partly with those who have taught them to be hypocrites, with those who have tyrannized over freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Here every independent thought, every word that is not an echo of the will of those in power, is characterized as filibusterism, and you know well enough what that means. A fool would he be who to please himself would say aloud what he thinks, who would lay himself liable to suffer persecution!”

”What persecution have you had to suffer?” asked Padre Fernandez, raising his head. ”Haven't I let you express yourself freely in my cla.s.s? Nevertheless, you are an exception that, if what you say is true, I must correct, so as to make the rule as general as possible and thus avoid setting a bad example.”

Isagani smiled. ”I thank you, but I will not discuss with you whether I am an exception. I will accept your qualification so that you may accept mine: you also are an exception, and as here we are not going to talk about exceptions, nor plead for ourselves, at least, I mean, _I'm not_, I beg of my _professor_ to change the course of the conversation.”

In spite of his liberal principles, Padre Fernandez raised his head and stared in surprise at Isagani. That young man was more independent than he had thought--although he called him _professor_, in reality he was dealing with him as an equal, since he allowed himself to offer suggestions. Like a wise diplomat, Padre Fernandez not only recognized the fact but even took his stand upon it.

”Good enough!” he said. ”But don't look upon me as your professor. I'm a friar and you are a Filipino student, nothing more nor less! Now I ask you--what do the Filipino students want of us?”