envy, the incontestable advantages which nature had bestowed upon it.

When Pepe Rey presented himself in the Casino, they received him with
something of suspicion, and as facetious persons abounded in it, before
the new member had been there a quarter of an hour, all sorts of jokes
had been made about him. When in answer to the reiterated questions of
the members he said that he had come to Orbajosa with a commission to
explore the basin of the Nahara for coal, and to survey a road, they
all agreed that Senor Don Jose was a conceited fellow who wished to
give himself airs, discovering coalbeds and planning railroads. Some one
added:

"He has come to a bad place for that, then. Those gentlemen imagine that
here we are all fools, and that they can deceive us with fine words. He
has come to marry Dona Perfecta's daughter, and all that he says about
coalbeds is only for the sake of appearances."

"Well, this morning," said another, a merchant who had failed, "they
told me at the Dominguez' that the gentleman has not a peseta, and that
he has come here in order to be supported by his aunt and to see if he
can catch Rosarito."

"It seems that he is no engineer at all," added an olive-planter, whose
plantations were mortgaged for double their value. "But it is as you
say: those starvelings from Madrid think they are justified in deceiving
poor provincials, and as they believe that here we all wear tails--"

"It is plain to be seen that he is penniless--"

"Well, half-jest and the whole earnest, he told us last night that we