himself in injuring me."

"That minister--but what is to be expected from those infamous
politicasters?"

"In this there is the hand of some one who is determined to drive me to
desperation," declared the young man, visibly disturbed. "This is
not the act of the minister; this and other contrarieties that I am
experiencing are the result of a revengeful plot, of a secret and
well-laid plan of some implacable enemy, and this enemy is here in
Orbajosa, this plot has been hatched in Orbajosa, doubt it not, dear
aunt."

"You are out of your mind," replied Dona Perfecta, with a look of
compassion. "You have enemies in Orbajosa, you say? Some one wishes to
revenge himself upon you? Come, Pepillo, you have lost your senses.
The reading of those books in which they say that we have for ancestors
monkeys or parrots has turned your brain."

She smiled sweetly as she uttered the last words, and taking a tone of
familiar and affectionate admonition, she added:

"My dear boy, the people of Orbajosa may be rude and boorish rustics,
without learning, or polish, or fine manners; but in loyalty and good
faith we yield to no one--to no one, I say, no one."

"Don't suppose," said the young man, "that I accuse any one in this
house. But that my implacable and cruel enemy is in this city, I am
persuaded."