At the moment when he was most absorbed in his narrative of how he had concocted the most ingenious intrigue to secure a vote of censure on the Mayor, Cobo—that inevitable spoilsport—came up, and after listening for a minute, roughly attacked him, saying:
"Come, Ramoncito, do not give yourself airs. We know very well that you are a mere nobody in the House. Gonzalez can lead you by the nose wherever he wants you to go."
This was a cruel thrust at Maldonado, considering that it was before Esperancita and several other ladies, old and young. Indeed it stunned him as completely as if it had been a blow on the head with a cudgel. He turned pale, his lips quivered, and he could not utter a word. At last he gasped out:
"I? Gonzalez? Leads me by the nose? Are you crazy? No one leads me by the nose, much less Gonzalez, of all men!"
He spoke the last words with intense scorn; he denied Gonzalez as Peter denied his Master, out of base pride. His conscience told him that he was not speaking truly, though no cock crew. Gonzalez was the acknowledged leader of the civic minority, and at the bottom of his heart, Ramon held him in great veneration.
"Pooh! nonsense! Do you mean to tell me that Gonzalez cannot make you work and dance like a puppet? Much good you dissidents would do if it were not for him."
On this Ramon recovered the use of his tongue, and to such good purpose, that he poured out above a thousand words in the course of a few minutes, with fierce vehemence, foaming and sputtering with rage. He rebuked with indignation the monstrous comparison of himself with a puppet, and fully explained the precise position held by Gonzalez in the city council and that which he himself occupied. But he did it with such frenzied excitement and gesticulation that the ladies looked at him in amused surprise.
"How eloquent he is! Who would have believed it of Ramoncito? Come, Cobo, do not tease him any more; you will make him ill!"
This compassionate tone stung Ramon to the quick. He was instantly speechless, and for at least an hour he wrapped himself in silent dignity.
The train drew up at a small station in the midst of a wide stretch of open moor, looking like a petrified sea; here the travellers were to take their mid-day meal. The Duke's servants, sent on the day before, had everything ready. Ramon devoted himself to the service of Esperanza, and she allowed him to wait on her with a placid smile which turned his head with joy. The reason of her condescension was that, by his aunt's particular desire, Pepe Castro had not joined the party. The matrimonial overtures, made under the greatest secrecy, required the utmost prudence. As Maldonado was so intimate with the lord of her heart, Esperanza felt a certain pleasure in keeping him at her side; at the same time she avoided comment by talking to the Conde de Agreda or to Cobo. Poor Ramon! How far he was from understanding these psychological complications.