from good sense and a temperate and just appreciation of worldly
matters. He had no toleration for those sophistries, and mystifications,
and quibbles of the understanding with which persons of intelligence,
imbued with affected culture, sometimes amuse themselves; and in defence
of the truth Pepe Rey employed at times, and not always with moderation,
the weapon of ridicule. This was almost a defect in the eyes of many
people who esteemed him, for our hero thus appeared wanting in respect
for a multitude of things commonly accepted and believed. It must be
acknowledged, although it may lessen him in the opinion of many, that
Rey did not share the mild toleration of the compliant age which has
invented strange disguises of words and of acts to conceal what to the
general eye might be disagreeable.

Such was the man, whatever slanderous tongues may say to the contrary,
whom Uncle Licurgo introduced into Orbajosa just as the cathedral bells
were ringing for high mass. When, looking over the garden wall, they saw
the young girl and the Penitentiary, and then the flight of the former
toward the house, they put spurs to their beasts and entered the Calle
Real, where a great many idlers stood still to gaze at the traveller, as
if he were a stranger and an intruder in the patriarchal city. Turning
presently to the right and riding in the direction of the cathedral,
whose massive bulk dominated the town, they entered the Calle del
Condestable, in which, being narrow and paved, the hoofs of the animals
clattered noisily, alarming the people of the neighborhood, who came to
the windows and to the balconies to satisfy their curiosity. Shutters
opened with a grating sound and various faces, almost all feminine,
appeared above and below. By the time Pepe Rey had reached the threshold
of the house of Polentinos many and diverse comments had been already
made on his person.