discredit and ruin in Madrid.

Perfecta sent for her brother, who, coming to the distressed widow's
assistance, displayed so much diligence and skill that in a short time
the greater part of the dangers that threatened her had disappeared. He
began by obliging his sister to live in Orbajosa, managing herself her
vast estates, while he faced the formidable pressure of the creditors in
Madrid. Little by little the house freed itself from the enormous burden
of its debts, for the excellent Don Juan Rey, who had the best way
in the world for managing such matters, pleaded in the court, made
settlements with the principal creditors and arranged to pay them by
instalments, the result of this skilful management being that the rich
patrimony of Polentinos was saved from ruin and might continue, for many
years to come, to bestow splendor and glory on that illustrious family.

Perfecta's gratitude was so profound that in writing to her brother from
Orbajosa, where she determined to reside until her daughter should be
grown up, she said to him, among other affectionate things: "You have
been more than a brother to me, more than a father to my daughter.
How can either of us ever repay you for services so great? Ah, my dear
brother? from the moment in which my daughter can reason and pronounce a
name I will teach her to bless yours. My gratitude will end only with my
life. Your unworthy sister regrets only that she can find no opportunity
of showing you how much she loves you and of recompensing you in a
manner suited to the greatness of your soul and the boundless goodness
of your heart."

At the same time when these words were written Rosarito was two years
old. Pepe Rey, shut up in a school in Seville, was making lines on
paper, occupied in proving that "the sum of all the interior angles of