"Tell me, Senor Don Jose, what do you think of Darwinism?"

Our hero smiled at this inopportune pedantry, and he felt almost tempted
to encourage the young man to continue in this path of childish vanity;
but, judging it more prudent to avoid intimacy, either with the nephew
or the uncle, he answered simply:

"I can think nothing at all about the doctrines of Darwin, for I know
scarcely any thing about him. My professional labors have not permitted
me to devote much of my time to those studies."

"Well," said the canon, laughing, "it all reduces itself to this, that
we are descended from monkeys. If he had said that only in the case of
certain people I know, he would have been right."

"The theory of natural selection," said Jacinto emphatically, "has, they
say, a great many partisans in Germany."

"I do not doubt it," said the ecclesiastic. "In Germany they would have
no reason to be sorry if that theory were true, as far as Bismarck is
concerned."

Dona Perfecta and Senor Don Cayetano at this moment made their
appearance.

"What a beautiful evening!" said the former. "Well, nephew, are you
getting terribly bored?"

"I am not bored in the least," responded the young man.