"How you do look; I don't like you so, Miguel!"
"It's because I don't care to dress up. I am only going on an errand, and shall be right back."
If at the end of any given time she found the same money in his vest, she would say sadly:—
"You don't spend anything, Miguel. Don't you lunch at the café? Why don't you go to the theatre?"
"Because I am very busy now. I will go as soon as the examinations are over. Besides, we must be a little economical for the present."
"How bad it makes me feel not to have you spend as you used to do!" she exclaimed, giving him a hug. "You are making this sacrifice for my sake! If you were alone, you would live much better."
"Come, come, don't be absurd, Maximina. Without you I should live neither well nor ill.... I should die," he replied, laughing.
Although excited by the prospect of the examinations, and working for them perhaps harder than he ought, our hero was not unhappy. When there is peace and love by the fireside, family life is the best sedative for mental sufferings. This on one side, and on the other the confidence which he had in his forces made living, up to a certain point, delightful.
There came a day, however, in which happiness and relative calmness disappeared at the announcement that the examinations for which he was working were indefinitely postponed, possibly till the next year.
All his plans fell to the ground. As he had not for some time thought of any other way of escape from his difficulties, he felt annihilated. He had strength enough, nevertheless, to hide it from his wife, and to appear at home serene and happy as usual. Redoubled by the surprise, the energies of his soul were awakened to new vigor.