The silence, caused more by surprise than any bad feeling, was now broken, and the "bravos" and applause continued without intermission. Never had the industrious, honest, intelligent people of Sarrio heard any one speak so fluently and eloquently before.
"That discourse was a revelation of the modern parliamentary style!" So Alvaro Peña said when the meeting was over.
The speech continued half an hour longer, amid the increasing enthusiasm of the audience, when one of the notabilities on the platform thought that his throat must be dry, and that it was time to give him a glass of sugared water.
The idea was communicated in an undertone to the president, who interrupted the orator with the remark:
"If Señor Suarez is fatigued, he can rest. I am going to have a glass of water sent him."
These words were received with a murmur of approval.
"I am not tired, Señor President," the orator replied gently.
[Yes, yes; rest. Make him rest. Let him have a glass of water. He will hurt himself. Let him have a few drops of anise.]
The audience, suddenly inspired with tender sympathy, manifested quite a maternal solicitude for Perinolo's son, who, inflated with delight, smiled on the audience and continued:
"Fatigue is fitting for valiant soldiers. Those who, like myself, are accustomed to the tribune [he had spoken a few times in the Academy of Jurisprudence in Lancia], do not easily become fatigued."