"And that she is in love with you, and that on the night of St. John's eve you were with her in tender conference until two o'clock in the morning, and that, for her sake, you sought a quarrel with the Count of Genazahar, whose head you have broken. A pretty secret you confide to me, truly! There isn't a cat or a dog in the village that is not fully acquainted with every detail of the business. The only thing there seemed a possibility of being able to conceal was, that your interview lasted until just two o'clock in the morning; but some gypsy cake-women chanced to see you leave Pepita's house, and did not stop until they had told every living creature in the place of it. Pepita, besides, makes no great effort to conceal the truth, and in this she does well, for that would be only the concealment of Antequera. Since you have been wounded, Pepita comes here twice a day, and sends Antoñona two or three times more to inquire after you; and if they have not come in to see you, it is because I would not consent to their doing so, lest it should excite you."
The confusion and the distress of Don Luis reached their climax when he heard his father thus compendiously tell the whole story.
"How surprised," he said, "how astounded you must have been!"
"No, my boy, I was neither surprised nor astounded. The matter has been known in the village only for four days, and indeed, to tell the truth, your transformation did create some surprise. 'Oh, the sly-boots! the wolf in sheep's clothing! the hypocrite!' every one exclaimed, 'how we have been deceived in him!' The reverend vicar, above all, is quite bewildered. He is still crossing himself to think how you toiled in the vineyard of the Lord on the night of the 23d and the morning of the 24th, and of how diverse a character were your labors. But there was nothing in these occurrences to surprise me, except your wound. We old people can feel the grass grow. It is not easy for the chickens to deceive the huckster."
"It is true, I sought to deceive you! I have been a hypocrite!"
"Don't be a fool; I do not say this to blame you. I say it in order to give myself an air of perspicacity. But let us speak with frankness. My boasting is, after all, without foundation. I knew, step by step, for more than two months past, the progress of your love-affair with Pepita; but I know it because your uncle the dean, to whom you were writing all that passed within your mind, has communicated it to me. Listen to your uncle's letter of accusation, and to the answer I gave him, a very important document, of which I have kept the copy."
Don Pedro took some papers from his pocket, and read as follows:
The Dean's Letter.
"My dear Brother: It grieves me to the heart to be obliged to give you a piece of bad news; but I trust that God will grant you patience and endurance to enable you to hear it without feeling too much anger or bitterness. Luisito has been writing me strange letters for some days past, in which he reveals, in the midst of his mystical exaltation, an inclination, earthly and sinful enough, toward a certain widow, charming, mischievous, and coquettish, who lives in your village. Up to the present I had deceived myself, believing Luisito's vocation to be a true one; and I flattered myself with giving to the Church of God, in him, a wise, virtuous, and exemplary priest. But his letters have dispelled my illusions. Luisito shows himself, in them, to have more of poetry than of true piety in his nature; and the widow, who must be a limb of Satan, will be able to vanquish him with but a very slight effort. Although I write to Luisito admonishing him to flee from temptation, I am already certain that he will fall into it. This ought not to grieve me; for, if he is to be false to his vocation, to indulge in gallantries, and to make love, it is better that this evil disposition should reveal itself in time, and that he should not become a priest. I should not, therefore, see any serious objection to Luisito's remaining with you, for the purpose of being tested by the touchstone and analyzed in the crucible of such a love, making the little widow the agent by whose means might be discovered how great is the quantity of the pure gold of his clerical virtues, and how much alloy is mixed with that gold, were it not that we are met by the difficulty that the widow whom we would thus convert into a faithful assayer, is the object of your own addresses, and, it may be, your sweetheart. That your son should turn out to be your rival would be too serious a matter. This would be a monstrous scandal, and, to avoid it in time, I write to you to-day to the end that, under whatever pretext, you may send or bring Luisito here—the sooner the better."
Don Luis listened in silence, and with his eyes cast down. His father continued: