United States or Belgium ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was a magnificent estate, another ancient property of the Dukes of Castro Duro, with a house adorned with escutcheons, and an extensive stone pool, deep and mysterious. The garden did not resemble that at Don Calixto's house, for that one was of a frantic gaiety, and the one on Amparito's father's estate was very melancholy.
"It is true," said the Canon gravely. "I never would have believed it." "Roma veduta, fede perduta," said Don Calixto. "And as for you, Caesar, hasn't this visit interested you?" "Yes, I have been interested in trying to keep from catching cold." The landau that the Breton family was in took the Appian, Way, and Caesar and Don Calixto's carriage followed behind it.
He looked at me for a long time, and then took another swig from his bottle. "Senor, this is not a thing I love joking about," said he. "Let us talk of other things. What I want to know is, what is Calixto's sister doing here? Why has she left her country?" Receiving no reply to this question, he went on: "Has she not got property?
The only way in which the trip was of service to the future candidate was by giving him an idea of how elections were carried on, by teaching him who carried the returns to Don. Calixto, and showing him which of these people could be warranted to be honourable and which were rascals. Three days before the election Caesar appeared in Castro and went to stay at Don Calixto's house.
"Thereupon, entrance, ceremonies, bows on my part, smiles... toute la lyre. Don Calixto's wife is an insignificant fat woman; the two daughters insipid, ungainly, not at all pretty; and with them was a little girl of about fifteen or sixteen, a niece of Don Calixto's, a veritable little devil, named Amparo.
In exchange for Don Calixto's surrender, Caesar agreed to have his Papal title legalized. At the end of a year and a half Caesar had all the bosses of Castro in his fist. "Suppressing the bosses in the district was easy," Caesar used to say; "I managed to have one make all the others innocuous, and then I made that one, who was Don Calixto, innocuous and gave him a title."
The other letter was from Amparito. Don Calixto's niece told him he mustn't believe that she hated him; if she had said anything to him, it was without bad intention; she would be very happy if all his projects were realized.
Don Calixto's wife showed me over an abandoned part of the house, in which there is an old kitchen as big as a cathedral, with a stone chimney like a high altar, with the arms of the Dukes of Castro. We chatted, I was very pleasant to the mother, courteous to the daughters, and coldly indifferent with the little niece.
Caesar began to establish political relations with the Republican bookseller and his friends. When he began to perceive that he was making headway with the Liberal and Labour element, he started without delay to set mines under Don Calixto's terrain.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to go on cultivating the bookseller." "I am going to." "Tomorrow, you know," said Caesar. "Grand dinner at Don Calixto's. The practical manoeuvres begin." "Very good." The table had been set in that wonderful gallery of the ancient palace of the Dukes of Castro Duro, which looked out over the garden.
Word Of The Day