“I mean that for over a year I have not received any news from here, so that now I feel like a total stranger. I do not yet know how or when my father died.”
“Ah!” exclaimed the lieutenant.
“Where have you been that you did not telegraph?” asked one of the ladies. “When I was married, we telegraphed to the Peninsula.”
“Señora, for the last two years I have been in northern Europe, in Germany and in Poland.”
“And what country of Europe do you like best?” asked the young blonde, who had been listening interestedly.
“After Spain, which is my second fatherland, oh—any free country in Europe.”
“You seem to have travelled a great deal—what is the most remarkable thing that you have observed?” asked Laruja.
Ibarra appeared to be reflecting on the question. “Remarkable? In what way?”
“For instance, in the life of the different peoples,—their social, political and religious life——”
Ibarra meditated for some little time. “I always made it a point to study the history of a country before visiting it, and I find that national development invariably follows perfectly natural rules. I have always noticed that the prosperity or poverty of different peoples is in direct proportion to their liberties or their lack of liberty, or, in other words, in proportion to the sacrifices or selfishness of their forefathers.”