any polygon is equal to twice as many right angles, wanting four, as the
figure has sides." These vexatious commonplaces of the school kept him
very busy. Year after year passed. The boy grew up, still continuing
to make lines. At last, he made one which is called "From Tarragona to
Montblanch." His first serious toy was the bridge, 120 metres in length,
over the River Francoli.

During all this time Dona Perfecta continued to live in Orbajosa. As her
brother never left Seville, several years passed without their seeing
each other. A quarterly letter, as punctually written as it was
punctually answered, kept in communication these two hearts, whose
affection neither time nor distance could cool. In 1870, when Don Juan
Rey, satisfied with having fulfilled his mission in society, retired
from it and went to live in his fine house in Puerto Real, Pepe, who had
been employed for several years in the works of various rich building
companies, set out on a tour through Germany and England, for the
purpose of study. His father's fortune, (as large as it is possible for
a fortune which has only an honorable law-office for its source to be in
Spain), permitted him to free himself in a short time from the yoke
of material labor. A man of exalted ideas and with an ardent love for
science, he found his purest enjoyment in the observation and study of
the marvels by means of which the genius of the age furthers at the same
time the culture and material comfort and the moral progress of man.

On returning from his tour his father informed him that he had an
important project to communicate to him. Pepe supposed that it concerned
some bridge, dockyard, or, at the least, the draining of some marsh,
but Don Juan soon dispelled his error, disclosing to him his plan in the
following words: