Caesar or Nothing Part 52

"Don Calixto came back; he asked me if I was tired, and I told him no, and when we had crossed the whole width of the house, which is huge, he showed me the garden. My boy, what a wonderful spot! It hangs over the river and it is a marvel. The highest part, which is the part they keep up, isn't worth much; it is in lamentable style; just imagine, there is a fountain which is a tin negro that spurts out water from all parts.

"However, the old part of the garden, the lower part, is lovely. There is a big tower standing guard over the river, now converted into a belvedere, with pomegranates, rose-bushes, and climbing plants all around it, and above all, there is an oleander that is a marvel...; it looks like a fire-work castle or a shower of flowers."

"Leave that point," said Alzugaray. "You are talking like a poor disciple of Ruskin's."

"You are right. But when you see those gardens, you will be enthusiastic, too."

"Get ahead."

THE POLITICAL POWERS OF CASTRO

"During our promenade Don Calixto talked to me of the immense good he has done for the town and of the ingrat.i.tude he constantly receives for it.

"While I listened, I recalled a little periodical in Madrid which had no other object than to furnish bombs at reasonable prices, and which said, speaking of a manufacturer in Catalonia: 'Senor So-and-so is the most powerful boss in the province of Tarragona, and even at that there are those who dispute his bossdom.'

"Don Calixto is astonished that when he has done the Castrians the honour to make them loans at eighty or ninety percent, they are not fond of him. After the garden we saw the house; I won't tell you anything about it, I don't want you to accuse me again of being a Ruskinian.

"When we reached the dining-room Don Calixto said: 'I am going to present you to my family.'

"Thereupon, entrance, ceremonies, bows on my part, smiles... _toute la lyre_. Don Calixto's wife is an insignificant fat woman; the two daughters insipid, ungainly, not at all pretty; and with them was a little girl of about fifteen or sixteen, a niece of Don Calixto's, a veritable little devil, named Amparo. This Amparo is a tiny, flat-faced creature, with black eyes, and extraordinarily vivacious and mischievous. During dinner I succeeded in irritating the child.

"I talked gravely with Don Calixto and his wife and daughters about Madrid, about the theatrical companies that come to this town, about their acquaintances at the Capital.

"The child interrupted us, bringing us the cat and putting a little bow on him, and then making him walk on the key-board of the piano.

"At half-past one we went to the dining-room. Dinner was kilometres long; and the conversation turned on Rome and Paris. Don Calixto drank more and more, I, too; and at the end of the meal there was a bit of toasting, from which my political intentions were made manifest.

"The elder daughter, whose name is Adela, asked me if I liked music. I told her yes, almost closing my eyes, as if deliriously, and we went into the drawing-room. Without paying attention, I listened, during the horrors of digestion, to a number of sonatas, now and then saying: 'Magnificent! How wonderful that is!'

"The father was enchanted, the mother enchanted, the sister likewise; the little girl was the one who stared at me with questioning black eyes. She must have been thinking: 'What species of bird is this?' I believe the d.a.m.ned child realized that I was acting a comedy.

"About four the ladies and I went out into the garden. Don Calixto has the habit of taking an afternoon nap, and he left us. I succeeded in bringing myself to, in the open air. Don Calixto's wife showed me over an abandoned part of the house, in which there is an old kitchen as big as a cathedral, with a stone chimney like a high altar, with the arms of the Dukes of Castro. We chatted, I was very pleasant to the mother, courteous to the daughters, and coldly indifferent with the little niece. I was bored, after having exhausted all subjects of conversation, when Don Calixto reappeared and carried me off to his office.

"The conference was important; he explained the situation of the Conservative forces of the district to me. These forces are represented, princ.i.p.ally, by three men: Don Calixto, a Senor Don Platon, and a friar.

Don Calixto represents the modern Conservative tendency and is, let us say, the Canovas of the district; with him are the rich members of the Casino, the superior judge, the doctors, the great proprietors, etc.

Don Platon Peribanez, a silversmith in the Calle Mayor, represents the middle-cla.s.s Conservatives; his people are less showy, but more in earnest and better disciplined; this Platonian or Platonic party is made up of chandlers, silversmiths, small merchants, and the poor priests.

The friar, who represents the third Conservative nucleus, is Father Martin Lafuerza. Father Martin is prior of the Franciscan monastery, which was established here after the Order was expelled from Filinas.

"Father Martin is an Ultramontanist up to the eyes. He directs priests, friars, nuns, sisters, and is the absolute master of a town nearby called Cidones, where the women are very pious.

"Despite their piety, the reputation of those ladies cannot be very good, because there is a proverb, certainly not very gallant: 'Don't get either a wife or a mule at Cidones; neither a wife nor a mule nor a pig at Grinon.'

"Opposed to these three Conservative nuclei are the friends of the present Deputy, who amount to no more than the official element, which is always on the ruling side, and a small guerilla band that meets in the Workingmen's Casino, and is composed princ.i.p.ally of a Republican bookseller, an apothecary who invents explosives, also Republican, an anarchist doctor, a free-thinking weaver, and an innkeeper whom they call Furibis, who is also a smuggler and a man with hair on his chest."

_DON PLAToN PERIBanEZ_

"After having given me these data, Don Calixto told me that by counting on Senor Peribanez, the election was almost sure; and since the quicker things go the better, he proposed that we should go to see him, and I immediately agreed.

"Don Platon Peribanez has a silver-shop fitted up in the old style; a small show-window, full of rattles, Moorish anklets, necklaces, little crosses, et cetera; a narrow, dark shop, then a long pa.s.sage, and at the rear, a workroom with a window on a court.

"As his a.s.sistant in the silver-shop, Don Platon has a boy who is a nonsuch. I believe that if you took him to London and exhibited him, saying beforehand: 'Bear in mind, gentlemen, that this is not a monkey or an anthropoid, but a man,' you would rake in a mad amount of pounds sterling.

"We went into Don Platon's little shop, we asked the young macaco for him, and we pa.s.sed on into the workshop.

"Senor Peribanez is a man of medium stature, dressed in black, with a trimmed white beard, grey eyes, and modest manners. He speaks coldly, thinks closely of what he is saying; he has a monotonous, slow voice, and nothing escapes him.

"Don Calixto presented me to him; the silversmith gave me his hand as if with a certain repugnance, and the boss explained who I was and what I was after.

"Don Platon said that he could not reply categorically without consulting with his friends and with Father Martin. The Father has other candidates; one the Duke of Castro himself; and the other a rich farmer of the town.

"The Duke of Castro presents no other drawback than that he has been arrested in Paris for an insignificant swindle he has committed; but it seems that a rich Cuban wants to get him out of his difficulties on condition that he will marry his daughter.

"If he comes out of jail and gets married, then they will nominate him as Deputy from here.

"I said to Don Platon, in case the worthy Duke does not come out of jail, would he have difficulties over my being his candidate. He replied that I am very young, and after many circ.u.mlocutions he said flatly that he doesn't know if I would be accepted or not as a candidate by his followers; but in case I were, the conditions precedent would be: first, that I would not interfere in any way in the affairs of the district, which would be ventilated in the town, as previously; secondly, that I should bear the costs of the election, which would amount approximately to some ten thousand pesetas.

"Don Calixto looked at me questioningly, and I smiled in a way to make it understood that I agreed, and after extracting a promise from Don Platon that he will give us a definite answer this week, we took leave of him and went to the Casino.

"There I was introduced to the judge, an Andalusian who has a spotless reputation for veniality, and to the mayor, who is a rich farmer; and the most important persons of the town being thus gathered at one table, we chatted about politics, women, and gambling.

"I told them a number of tales; I told them that I once lost ten thousand dollars at Monte Carlo, playing with two Russian princes and a Yankee millionairess; I talked to them about the mysteries and crimes of gambling houses and of those great centres of pleasure, and I left them speechless. At half-past nine, with a terrible headache, I came back here. I think I have not lost a day, eh?"

"No! The devil! What speed!" exclaimed Alzugaray.

"But you are not eating any supper. Don't you intend to take anything?"

"No. I am going to see if I can sleep. Listen, day after tomorrow we are both invited to dine at Don Calixto's."

"Me, too?"

"Yes; I told them that you are a rich tourist, and they want to know you."

"And what am I to do there?"

"You can study these people, as an entomologist studies insects. Listen, it wouldn't do any harm if you took a walk to that town near here, named Cidones, to see if you can find out what sort of bird this Father Martin is."

"All right."

"And if you don't mind, go into that Republican bookseller's shop, under any pretext, and talk to him."

"I will do so."