Maximina Part 49

A fortnight pa.s.sed before he saw him again; for the two times that he went there, he was told that his excellency could not receive him as he was busy with the sub-secretary.

"_Hola!_ Rivera, I know that you have been here twice already; I felt it to the bottom of my heart that I could not see you. At all events, the matter has not been in a pressing hurry hitherto. Let us see! Sit down.

How do you find the district? Has Corrales been giving you much to do?"

"Not much up to the present time."

"Indeed!" said the President, surprised. "Well, then; what I have heard is a very different story. I have been told that he is moving in a prodigious way: that the clergy are working for him decidedly, and that some of our friends, whom apparently Rios has not been able or has not cared to serve, have gone over to him bag and baggage.... But it is possible that you are better informed."

"Senor Presidente, the letters that I have received from there say nothing of all this; on the other hand, all the general's friends a.s.sure me that, as he is agreeable to my candidacy and as it is supported by the government, it is impossible for a moment to doubt of our triumph."

"In spite of all that, it is proper that you should go there in person, talk with them, and watch the election. Those of us who have spent a few years in public life know that there is nothing certain."

"That is very good. When do you think that I ought to go there?"

"The sooner the better; but before you go, come here, so that I may give you some letters. You do not need one to the governor, for he has known for some time that you are the official candidate. Besides, I believe that you are acquainted...."

"Yes, sir; I knew him when he was editor of _La Iberia_."

XIX.

Now while Miguel was busy in this excitement and anxiety, through the fear of approaching ruin to his fortunes, another danger, a thousand times greater, was threatening him without his knowledge.

We have already seen what a strange liking for Maximina had been awakened in Don Alfonso Saavedra: it can be compared to nothing else than that of the wolf, of which the fable tells us, who, having in his power the whole flock of a rich man, went to devour the only lamb owned by a poor man.

As the Andalusian _caballero_ was not a man to be readily defeated, or else because he almost always found women easy to conquer, or because his ostentatious figure, his fortune, and his arrogance made him bold toward those who resisted him, he remained deeply disgusted because of the scene at the party, where he had played a part so supremely ridiculous in his own eyes. The absolute lack of coquetry which was noticeable in Rivera's wife, was what mortified him most of all, since he could not even invent the illusion that the indifference with which she had received his gallantries was more or less fict.i.tious.

To say that after this rebuff his ardor greatly increased, would be doing little honor to the penetration of my readers: every one knows that disdain is far from being the best palliative for love, and that, in the majority of the mad pa.s.sions that we see in the world, self-love comes in with a respectable contingent.

Saavedra did not lose his wits, nor did he even make any false show of appearing foolish, like Don Quixote in Sierra Morena; but as a man of sagacity, accomplished in adventures of this sort, he determined not to lose again his self-possession, and to "establish the blockade" of the place according to the rules which his experience had laid down.

Quickly reading through Maximina's character, he divined that in her case there would be no use for that amiability stuffed with arrogance, that politeness imbued with disdain, which he had employed in winning his cousin Julia's love. This serene, serious, and humble nature could not be attacked on the side of vanity: he must aim at her affections. He proposed, therefore, to win her little by little; not in the guise of a rejected lover, which he well knew would be to lose forever her esteem, but as a sincere, affectionate, and helpful friend. He tried with all his power to dispel the suspicions which the conversation at the party might have left in the young wife's mind. He quickly discovered that the excitement under which she was at that time laboring had prevented her from noticing his attempt to flirt with her; and he was enabled at his leisure to carry out the plan of the campaign which he had designed.

He began gradually to make more and more frequent calls at their house, skilfully overcoming the antipathy which Miguel had not the power to dissemble. To accomplish this, he allowed him to notice a certain change in his behavior, in harmony with those ideas of peace, order, and propriety, which are characteristic of family life; he had some confidential conversations with him, in which he announced himself as a man who loathed a corrupt life, and was weary of the snaring pleasures of the world; in order to flatter his literary and scientific tastes, he borrowed certain books of him; and, after reading them, talked about them long and enthusiastically, which secretly much amused Miguel. Then, more than ever, he understood and did not cease to marvel at the supine ignorance of so-called "society men." Don Alfonso had never in his life read much besides French novels, and sometimes he asked questions that would have astonished any schoolboy.

"He is one of our most distinguished savages," said Miguel to his wife, speaking of this new taste for books.

With Maximina our Audalusian entered into long conversations about his travels, laying special stress on the domestic customs of other countries.

"Just think," he said (he never addressed Maximina with the familiar '_tu_,' though he thus addressed Miguel), "in England they eat five times a day. In the morning they breakfast as they please; at nine or ten they have a meal of considerable formality; at one, another still more free and easy; at five or six they have dinner; and at bedtime also they have a bite of something."

Maximina, as a good housewife, was interested in these details, asked about the prices of provisions and of rents; and she was greatly surprised at the liberty given to the women in the way of going into the street alone, and even travelling.

"Come now, that is the great country for Maximina," said Miguel. "She is too modest to go alone to ma.s.s, and yet the church is only a step away."

The young wife smiled, in embarra.s.sment.

"Well, now, yesterday I went with Juana to the Calle de Postas to buy some drawers."

"There you have a word that you could not speak in England before people."

"_Madre!_ and when you buy them, what do you call for?"

"They speak it to the clerk as a confessional secret," suggested Miguel.

"Don't you believe him," replied Saavedra, laughing. "For those ladies'

clerks in shops are not 'people.'"

Meanwhile, he was trying to get her interested in his own private affairs, asking her advice, and often following it.

"The truth is, that in respect of good advice I do not miss my mother.

You take her place divinely, Maximina. I announce myself your adopted son, though I am old enough to be your father."

"But you are not as obedient as I should like."

"Only in one point, as you well know. In all the rest I obey blindly."

The point was marriage. Maximina did not cease to urge him to get married.

"Hitherto I have never found a woman who would satisfy me for a wife,"

he replied.

"Why don't you marry Julia?" she asked one day at random, with the ingenuous frankness characteristic of her.

Don Alfonso was a trifle confused.

"Julia is a good girl.... Very well educated ... she is talented ... she is pretty.... But see here! confidentially, do you think that I should be happy with Julia?"

"Why not?" demanded the young wife.

Saavedra kept silent a few minutes, remaining apparently lost in thought; then he said:--

"You will readily understand that as you are her sister-in-law, and I am her cousin, neither of us can with delicacy speak about her except in terms of praise, which she certainly deserves in many regards. But with you I have the courage to say one thing, and that is that we are not congenial. We are two...."

And Don Alfonso put his two index fingers end to end.

"Why, I supposed that you were fond of each other!"

"Yes, we are fond of each other, but ... between this and marriage there is a considerable distance.... I remind you that I have just spoken as though you were my mother. Don't say anything of this to Miguel. He is her brother, and the most insignificant thing might trouble him."

In this insidious manner the serpent tried to make his way into this paradise. And he succeeded at last. As he had wisdom enough not to take advantage of it, he soon acquired a certain familiarity in visiting at their house, but always at the time when Miguel was at home; he knew perfectly well that the least shadow of suspicion pa.s.sing through his mind would be sufficient to put an end to everything--G.o.d only knew how!

He also seized upon the occasions when _la brigadiera_ and Julia were going to call on the young couple to accompany them. The jealousy which the Brigadier's daughter had felt on the night of the party had completely vanished when she saw the brotherly familiarity with which he treated her sister-in-law, and the pains which the latter took to bring her and her cousin together, and see them talk by themselves.

"It was through you that I got married; I have made up my mind to make a match for you," said Maximina.