“‘Yes, I met him in Rome.’
“‘Do you know where he lives?’
“‘No.’
“‘Then I will take you.’
“The priest and I went out into the street. He wanted to give me the sidewalk, and I opposed that as if it were a crime. He told me he was more accustomed than I to walking on the cobble-stones; and finally, he on the sidewalk and I in the gutter, we arrived at Don Calixto’s house.”
“Was he at home?” asked Alzugaray.
“Yes,” said Cæsar. “By the way, on the road there we bowed to the present Deputy to the Cortes, he who will be my opponent in the approaching election, Señor García Padilla.”
“Dear man! What a coincidence! What sort is he?”
“He is tall, with a reddish aquiline nose, a greyish moustache, full of cosmetic, a poor type.”