before so brilliant an oracle I prostrate myself and am silent."

So saying, the canon folded his hands across his breast and bent his
head. Pepe Rey was somewhat disturbed because of the turn which his mind
had chosen to give to an idle discussion jestingly followed up, and
in which he had engaged only to enliven the conversation a little. He
thought that the most prudent course to pursue would be to end at once
so dangerous a debate, and for this purpose he addressed a question to
Senor Don Cayetano when the latter, shaking off the drowsiness which
had overcome him after the dessert, offered the guests the indispensable
toothpicks stuck in a china peacock with outspread tail.

"Yesterday I discovered a hand grasping the handle of an amphora, on
which there are a number of hieratic characters. I will show it to you,"
said Don Cayetano, delighted to introduce a favorite theme.

"I suppose that Senor de Rey is very expert in archaeological matters
also," said the canon, who, still implacable, pursued his victim to his
last retreat.

"Of course," said Dona Perfecta. "What is there that these clever
children of our day do not understand? They have all the sciences at
their fingers' ends. The universities and the academics teach them every
thing in a twinkling, giving them a patent of learning."

"Oh, that is unjust!" responded the canon, observing the pained
expression of the engineer's countenance.

"My aunt is right," declared Pepe. "At the present day we learn a little
of every thing, and leave school with the rudiments of various studies."