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Caesar, on hearing Alzugaray recount the doings of his uncle Carlos Yarza various times, said to his fellow-student: "When I get out of this college, the first thing I am going to do is to go to Paris to talk with your uncle." "What for?" "I have to talk to him."
Carlos Yarza was at that time an employee in a bank. At this epoch his forte was for questions of speculation. He had put his mind and his will to the study of these matters and had the glimmering of a system in things where everybody else saw only contingencies without any possible law. Caesar accompanied Yarza to the Bourse and was amazed and stirred at seeing the enormous activity there.
Yarza cleared away the innumerable doubts that occurred to the boy. In the short time Caesar spent in Paris he came to a most important conclusion, which was that in this life one had to fight terribly to get anywhere. One day, on awakening in the shabby little room where he lodged, he found that the arms of a very smart woman were around his neck.
His life contained few incidents; summers he went to Valencia, and there, in the villa, he read and talked with the peasants. His mother, devoted solely to the Church, bothered herself little about her son. Caesar ended his studies, and on his coming of age, they gave him his share of his father's estate. Incontinently he took the train, he went to Paris, he looked up Yarza.
He lunched at his hotel, gave orders that if any one brought a letter or message for Senor Perez Cuesta they should receive it, and went again to the Rue de Provence, where he said he had had the good luck to find his cheque. With all these goings and comings it got to be three o'clock, and Caesar turned his steps toward the Cafe Riche. Yarza was there and the two talked a long while.
He explained to him his vague projects of action. Yarza listened attentively, and said: "Perhaps it will appear foolish to you, but I am going to give you a book I wrote, which I should like you to read. It's called Enchiridion Sapientiae. In my youth I was something of a Latinist. In these pages, less than a hundred, I have gathered my observations about the financial and political world.
"If you have a moment free, read the history of the Borgias," murmured Caesar, turning over in bed. The next few days Caesar lived in constant intranquillity. Yarza telegraphed him, saying that they had done the whole operation. On the 27th, in the afternoon, Caesar wandered toward the Calle de Alcala; Madrid wore its normal aspect; the newspaper boys were calling no extras.
It might as well be called Contribution to Common-sense, or Neo-Machiavellianism. If you find that it helps you, keep it." Caesar read the book with concentrated attention. "How did it strike you?" said Yarza. "There are many things in it I don't agree with; I shall have to think over them again." "All right. Then keep my Enchiridion and go on to London. Paris is a city that has finished.
On arriving at Paris next evening, he left his luggage in the hotel at the Quai d'Orsay station. He wired his address to the Minister and to Alzugaray, and went out at once to look for Carlos Yarza. He was unable to find him until very late at night. He explained to his friend what had brought him, and Yarza told him he was at his disposition. "When you need me, let me know." "Good."
"Very good indeed." Caesar bowed; and after he had sent Yarza a telephone message, making an appointment for after the Bourse at the Cafe Riche, he took an automobile and went to hunt for the great financier Dupont de Sarthe, who lived on the other bank of the Seine, near the Montparnasse station. He had a large, sumptuous office, with an enormous library.
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