Caesar or Nothing Part 56

Without knowing why, he felt more antipathy for the girl than was natural under the circ.u.mstances. He did not like to admit it to himself; but he felt the hostility which is produced in strong, self-willed characters by the presence of another person with a strong character proposing to exert itself.

THE TWO FRIENDS' COMMENTS

Caesar was thinking over the details of the visit, when Alzugaray came home, and seeing a light in Caesar's room, went in there. Alzugaray was quite lively. The two friends pa.s.sed the persons met that day in ironic review, and in general they were agreed about everything, except about valuing Amparito's character.

Caesar found her distasteful, pert and impertinent; to his friend, on the contrary, she had seemed very attractive, very amiable and very clever.

"To me," said Caesar, "she appears one of these small town la.s.ses who have a flirtation with a student, then with a captain, and finally marry some rich brute, and get fat, and turn into old sows, and grow moustaches."

"In that I think you are fundamentally unjust," said Alzugaray.

"Amparito is not a small town la.s.s, for she lives in Madrid almost all year. Besides, that makes no difference; what I have not observed is her committing any folly or impertinence." "Dear man, it all depends on how you look at it. To me her conduct seemed bad, to you it seems all right."

"You are an extremist, for I can a.s.sure you that you were actually rude to her."

"Actually rude, I don't think; but I admit that I was cool and not very amiable."

"And why were you?"

"First, because it is politic of me, since Don Calixto's family do not care for Amparito; and secondly, because the little creature didn't please me, either."

"And why didn't she please you? For no reason at all?"

"I am not partial to the platyrrhine races."

"What nonsense! And you wish to look at things clearly! A man that judges people by their noses!"

"It seems to you little to go on? A brunette girl, brachicephalic and rather platyrrhine.... There is no more to say."

"And if she had been blond, dolichocephalic, and long-nosed, she would have seemed all right to you."

"Her ethnic type would have seemed all right."

"Let's not discuss it. What's the use? But I feel that you are arbitrary to an extreme."

"If she knew of our discussion, the young thing couldn't complain, because if she has had a systematic detractor in me, she has found an enthusiastic defender in you."

"Yes, dear man; it is only at such long intervals that I see a person with ingenuousness and enthusiasm, that when I do meet one, I get a real joy from it."

"You are a sentimentalist."

"That's true; and you have become an inquisitor."

"Most certainly. I believe we agree on that and on all the rest."

"I think so. All right. Good-bye!" said Alzugaray, ill-humouredly.

"Salutations!" replied Caesar.

VI. UNCLE CHINAMAN

CIDONES

Caesar impatiently awaited Senor Peribanez's reply, so that he might return to Madrid. He was fed up with Don Calixto's conversation and his wife's, and with the familiarity they had established with him.

Alzugaray, on the other hand, was entertained and content. Amparito's father showed a great liking for him and took him everywhere in his automobile.

Caesar, in order to satisfy his requirements for isolation, had begun to get up very early and take walks on the highway. He almost always walked too far, and was done up for the whole day, and at first he slept badly at night.

He wanted to see, one by one, the parts of his future realm, the scene where his initiative was to bear seed and his plans to be realized.

A lot of ideas occurred to him: to build a bridge here, to take advantage there of the fall of the river and establish a big electric plant for industrial purposes. He would have liked to change everything he saw, in an instant.

To think of these sleeping forces irritated him: the waterfall, lost without leaving its energy anywhere; the ravine, which might be transformed into an irrigation reservoir; the river, which was flowing gently without fertilizing the fields; the land around the hermitage, which might have been converted into a park, with a bright, gay schoolhouse; all these things that could be done and were not done, seemed to him more real than the people with whom he talked and lived.

One morning Caesar walked to Cidones; the sun shone strongly on the highway, and he reached the town choked and thirsty.

The streets of Cidones were so narrow, so cold and damp, that Caesar shivered on entering the first one, and he turned back, and instead of going inside that polypus of dark clefts, he walked around it by the road. On a small house with an arbour, which was on a corner, he saw a sign saying: 'Cafe Espanol'; and went in.

THE CAFe ESPAnOL.

The cafe was dark and completely empty, but at one end there was a balcony where the sun entered. Caesar crossed the cafe and sat down near the balcony.

He called several times, and clapped his hands, and a girl appeared.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Something to drink. A bottle of beer."

"I will call Uncle Chinaman."

The girl went out, and soon after a thick, chubby man came in, with a bottle of beer in his hand, the label of which he showed to Caesar, asking him if that was what he wanted.

"Yes, sir; that will do very well."

The man opened the bottle with his corkscrew, put it on the table, and as he seemed to have a desire to enter into conversation, Caesar asked him:

"Why did the girl tell me that Uncle Chinaman would come? Who is the Chinaman?"

"The Chinaman, or Uncle Chinaman, as you like; I am."

"My dear man!"