"It is Don Luis," said the "Wooden Staff," "he is going to say his
mass in the chapel of the Sagrario, and afterwards to the choir."

Gabriel rose from his sofa to salute the priest. He was feeble and
small of stature, but the thing about him that struck you at first
sight was the disproportion between his shrunken body and his immense
head. The forehead, round and prominent, seemed to crush with its
weight the dark and irregular features, much pitted by smallpox.
He was very ugly, but still the expression of his blue eyes, the
brilliancy of his white and regular teeth, and the ingenuous smile,
almost childlike, that played on his lips, gave his face that
sympathetic expression which showed him to be one of those simple
souls wrapped up in their artistic fancies.

"And so this gentleman is the brother of whom you have spoken to me so
often," said he, hearing the introduction made by Esteban.

He held out his hand in a friendly way to Gabriel. They both looked
very sickly, but their bodily infirmities seemed to be a bond of
attraction.

"As the señor has studied in the seminary," said the Chapel-master,
"he will know something about music."

"It is the only thing that I remember of all those studies."

"But having travelled so much all over the world, you must have heard
a great deal of good music."

"That is so. Music is to me the most pleasing of all the arts. I do