Dona Perfecta

by Benito Pérez Galdós

  CHAPTER IX

  THE DISAGREEMENT CONTINUES TO INCREASE, AND THEREAFTER TO BECOME DISCORD

  Close beside the black cassock was a fresh and rosy face, that seemedfresher and rosier from the contrast. Jacinto saluted our hero, notwithout some embarrassment.

  He was one of those precocious youths whom the indulgent universitysends prematurely forth into the arena of life, making them fancy thatthey are men because they have received their doctor's degree. Jacintohad a round, handsome face with rosy cheeks, like a girl's, and withoutany beard save the down which announced its coming. In person he wasplump and below the medium height. His age was a little over twenty. Hehad been educated from childhood under the direction of his excellentand learned uncle, which is the same as saying that the twig had notbecome crooked in the growing. A severe moral training had kept himalways straight, and in the fulfilment of his scholastic duties hehad been almost above reproach. Having concluded his studies at theuniversity with astonishing success, for there was scarcely a class inwhich he did not take the highest honors, he entered on the practice ofhis profession, promising, by his application and his aptitude forthe law, to maintain fresh and green in the forum the laurels of thelecture-hall.

  At times he was as mischievous as a boy, at times as sedate as a man.In very truth, if Jacinto had not had a little, and even a great deal ofliking for pretty girls, his uncle would have thought him perfect. Theworthy man preached to him unceasingly on this point, hastening toclip the wings of every audacious fancy. But not even this mundaneinclination of the young man could cool the great affection whichour worthy canon bore the charming offspring of his dear niece, MariaRemedios. Where the young lawyer was concerned, every thing elsemust give way. Even the grave and methodical habits of the worthyecclesiastic were altered when they interfered with the affairs of hisprecocious pupil. That order and regularity, apparently as fixed as thelaws of a planetary system, were interrupted whenever Jacinto was illor had to take a journey. Useless celibacy of the clergy! The Council ofTrent prohibits them from having children of their own, but God--and notthe Devil, as the proverb says--gives them nephews and nieces in orderthat they may know the tender anxieties of paternity.

  Examining impartially the qualities of this clever boy, it wasimpossible not to recognize that he was not wanting in merit. Hischaracter was in the main inclined to uprightness, and nobleactions awakened a frank admiration in his soul. With respect to hisintellectual endowments and his social knowledge, they were sufficientto enable him to become in time one of those notabilities of whomthere are so many in Spain; he might be what we take delight in callinghyperbolically a distinguished patrician, or an eminent public man;species which, owing to their great abundance, are hardly appreciatedat their just value. In the tender age in which the university degreeserves as a sort of solder between boyhood and manhood, few youngmen--especially if they have been spoiled by their masters--are freefrom an offensive pedantry, which, if it gives them great importancebeside their mamma's arm-chair, makes them very ridiculous when theyare among grave and experienced men. Jacinto had this defect, which wasexcusable in him, not only because of his youth, but also because hisworthy uncle stimulated his puerile vanity by injudicious praise.

  When the introduction was over they resumed their walk. Jacinto wassilent. The canon, returning to the interrupted theme of the _pyros_which were to be grafted and the _vites_ which were to be trimmed, said:

  "I am already aware that Senor Don Jose is a great agriculturist."

  "Not at all; I know nothing whatever about the subject," respondedthe young man, observing with no little annoyance the canon's mania ofsupposing him to be learned in all the sciences.

  "Oh, yes! a great agriculturist," continued the Penitentiary; "but onagricultural subjects, don't quote the latest treatises to me. For methe whole of that science, Senor de Rey, is condensed in what I call theBible of the Field, in the 'Georgics' of the immortal Roman. It is alladmirable, from that grand sentence, _Nec vero terroe ferre omnes omniapossunt_--that is to say, that not every soil is suited to every tree,Senor Don Jose--to the exhaustive treatise on bees, in which the poetdescribes the habits of those wise little animals, defining the drone inthese words:

  "'Ille horridus alter Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum.'

  "'Of a horrible and slothful figure, dragging along the ignoble weight ofthe belly,' Senor Don Jose."

  "You do well to translate it for me," said Pepe, "for I know very littleLatin."

  "Oh, why should the men of the present day spend their time in studyingthings that are out of date?" said the canon ironically. "Besides,only poor creatures like Virgil and Cicero and Livy wrote in Latin. I,however, am of a different way of thinking; as witness my nephew, towhom I have taught that sublime language. The rascal knows it betterthan I do. The worst of it is, that with his modern reading he isforgetting it; and some fine day, without ever having suspected it, hewill find out that he is an ignoramus. For, Senor Don Jose, my nephewhas taken to studying the newest books and the most extravaganttheories, and it is Flammarion here and Flammarion there, and nothingwill do him but that the stars are full of people. Come, I fancy thatyou two are going to be very good friends. Jacinto, beg this gentlemanto teach you the higher mathematics, to instruct you concerning theGerman philosophers, and then you will be a man."

  The worthy ecclesiastic laughed at his own wit, while Jacinto, delightedto see the conversation turn on a theme so greatly to his taste, afterexcusing himself to Pepe Rey, suddenly hurled this question at him:

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

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

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

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

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

  "I do not doubt it," said the ecclesiastic. "In Germany they would haveno reason to be sorry if that theory were true, as far as Bismarck isconcerned."

  Dona Perfecta and Senor Don Cayetano at this moment made theirappearance.

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

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

  "Don't try to deny it. Cayetano and I were speaking of that as we camealong. You are bored, and you are trying to hide it. It is not everyyoung man of the present day who would have the self-denial to spendhis youth, like Jacinto, in a town where there are neither theatres,nor opera bouffe, nor dancers, nor philosophers, nor athenaeums,nor magazines, nor congresses, nor any other kind of diversions orentertainments."

  "I am quite contented here," responded Pepe. "I was just now saying toRosario that I find this city and this house so pleasant that I wouldlike to live and die here."

  Rosario turned very red and the others were silent. They all sat downin a summer-house, Jacinto hastening to take the seat on the left of theyoung girl.

  "See here, nephew, I have a piece of advice to give you," said DonaPerfecta, smiling with that expression of kindness that seemed toemanate from her soul, like the aroma from the flower. "But don'timagine that I am either reproving you or giving you a lesson--you arenot a child, and you will easily understand what I mean."

  "Scold me, dear aunt, for no doubt I deserve it," replied Pepe, who wasbeginning to accustom himself to the kindnesses of his father's sister.

  "No, it is only a piece of advice. These gentlemen, I am sure, willagree that I am in the right.
"

  Rosario was listening with her whole soul.

  "It is only this," continued Dona Perfecta, "that when you visit ourbeautiful cathedral again, you will endeavor to behave with a littlemore decorum while you are in it."

  "Why, what have I done?"

  "It does not surprise me that you are not yourself aware of your fault,"said his aunt, with apparent good humor. "It is only natural; accustomedas you are to enter athenaeums and clubs, and academies and congresseswithout any ceremony, you think that you can enter a temple in which theDivine Majesty is in the same manner."

  "But excuse me, senora," said Pepe gravely, "I entered the cathedralwith the greatest decorum."

  "But I am not scolding you, man; I am not scolding you. If you take itin that way I shall have to remain silent. Excuse my nephew, gentlemen.A little carelessness, a little heedlessness on his part is not to bewondered at. How many years is it since you set foot in a sacred placebefore?"

  "Senora, I assure you----But, in short, let my religious ideas be whatthey may, I am in the habit of observing the utmost decorum in church."

  "What I assure you is----There, if you are going to be offended I won'tgo on. What I assure you is that a great many people noticed it thismorning. The Senores de Gonzalez, Dona Robustiana, Serafinita--in short,when I tell you that you attracted the attention of the bishop----Hislordship complained to me about it this afternoon when I was at mycousin's. He told me that he did not order you to be put out of thechurch only because you were my nephew."

  Rosario looked anxiously at her cousin, trying to read in hiscountenance, before he uttered it, the answer he would make to thesecharges.

  "No doubt they mistook me for some one else."

  "No, no! it was you. But there, don't get angry! We are talking hereamong friends and in confidence. It was you. I saw you myself."

  "You saw me!"

  "Just so. Will you deny that you went to look at the pictures, passingamong a group of worshippers who were hearing mass? I assure you that myattention was so distracted by your comings and goings that--well, youmust not do it again. Then you went into the chapel of San Gregorio. Atthe elevation of the Host at the high altar you did not even turn aroundto make a gesture of reverence. Afterward you traversed the whole lengthof the church, you went up to the tomb of the Adelantado, you touchedthe altar with your hands, then you passed a second time among a groupof worshippers, attracting the notice of every one. All the girls lookedat you, and you seemed pleased at disturbing so finely the devotions ofthose good people."

  "Good Heavens! How many things I have done!" exclaimed Pepe, half angry,half amused. "I am a monster, it seems, without ever having suspectedit."

  "No, I am very well aware that you are a good boy," said Dona Perfecta,observing the canon's expression of unalterable gravity, which gave hisface the appearance of a pasteboard mask. "But, my dear boy, betweenthinking things and showing them in that irreverent manner, there is adistance which a man of good sense and good breeding should never cross.I am well aware that your ideas are----Now, don't get angry! If youget angry, I will be silent. I say that it is one thing to have certainideas about religion and another thing to express them. I will take goodcare not to reproach you because you believe that God did not create usin his image and likeness, but that we are descended from the monkeys;nor because you deny the existence of the soul, asserting that it is adrug, like the little papers of rhubarb and magnesia that are sold atthe apothecary's--"

  "Senora, for Heaven's sake!" exclaimed Pepe, with annoyance. "I see thatI have a very bad reputation in Orbajosa."

  The others remained silent.

  "As I said, I will not reproach you for entertaining those ideas. And,besides, I have not the right to do so. If I should undertake to arguewith you, you, with your wonderful talents, would confute me a thousandtimes over. No, I will not attempt any thing of that kind. What I sayis that these poor and humble inhabitants of Orbajosa are pious andgood Christians, although they know nothing about German philosophy, andthat, therefore, you ought not publicly to manifest your contempt fortheir beliefs."

  "My dear aunt," said the engineer gravely, "I have shown no contempt forany one, nor do I entertain the ideas which you attribute to me. PerhapsI may have been a little wanting in reverence in the church. I amsomewhat absent-minded. My thoughts and my attention were engagedwith the architecture of the building and, frankly speaking, I did notobserve----But this was no reason for the bishop to think of putting meout of the church, nor for you to suppose me capable of attributing toa paper from the apothecary's the functions of the soul. I may toleratethat as a jest, but only as a jest."

  The agitation of Pepe Rey's mind was so great that, notwithstanding hisnatural prudence and moderation, he was unable to conceal it.

  "There! I see that you are angry," said Dona Perfecta, casting down hereyes and clasping her hands. "I am very sorry. If I had known that youwould have taken it in that way, I should not have spoken to you. Pepe,I ask your pardon."

  Hearing these words and seeing his kind aunt's deprecating attitude,Pepe felt ashamed of the sternness of his last words, and he made aneffort to recover his serenity. The venerable Penitentiary extricatedhim from his embarrassing position, saying with his accustomedbenevolent smile:

  "Senora Dona Perfecta, we must be tolerant with artists. Oh, I haveknown a great many of them! Those gentlemen, when they have before thema statue, a piece of rusty armor, a mouldy painting, or an old wall,forget every thing else. Senor Don Jose is an artist, and he has visitedour cathedral as the English visit it, who would willingly carry it awaywith them to their museums, to its last tile, if they could. That theworshippers were praying, that the priest was elevating the Sacred Host,that the moment of supreme piety and devotion had come--what of that?What does all that matter to an artist? It is true that I do not knowwhat art is worth, apart from the sentiments which it expresses, but,in fine, at the present day, it is the custom to adore the form, notthe idea. God preserve me from undertaking to discuss this question withSenor Don Jose, who knows so much, and who, reasoning with the admirablesubtlety of the moderns, would instantly confound my mind, in whichthere is only faith."

  "The determination which you all have to regard me as the most learnedman on earth annoys me exceedingly," said Pepe, speaking in his formerhard tone. "Hold me for a fool; for I would rather be regarded as a foolthan as the possessor of that Satanic knowledge which is here attributedto me."

  Rosarito laughed, and Jacinto thought that a highly opportune moment hadnow arrived to make a display of his own erudition.

  "Pantheism or panentheism," he said, "is condemned by the Church, aswell as by the teachings of Schopenhauer and of the modern Hartmann."

  "Ladies and gentlemen," said the canon gravely, "men who pay so ferventa worship to art, though it be only to its form, deserve the greatestrespect. It is better to be an artist, and delight in the contemplationof beauty, though this be only represented by nude nymphs, than to beindifferent and incredulous in every thing. The mind that consecratesitself to the contemplation of beauty, evil will not take completepossession of. _Est Deus in nobis_. _Deus_, be it well understood. LetSenor Don Jose, then, continue to admire the marvels of our church; I,for one, will willingly forgive him his acts of irreverence, with alldue respect for the opinions of the bishop."

  "Thanks, Senor Don Inocencio," said Pepe, feeling a bitter andrebellious sentiment of hostility springing up within him toward thecanon, and unable to conquer his desire to mortify him. "But let noneof you imagine, either, that it was the beauties of art, of whichyou suppose the temple to be full, that engaged my attention. Thosebeauties, with the exception of the imposing architecture of a portionof the edifice and of the three tombs that are in the chapel of theapse, I do not see. What occupied my mind was the consideration ofthe deplorable decadence of the religious arts; and the innumerablemonstrosities, of which the cathedral is full, caused me notastonishment, but disgust."

  The amazement of all present was p
rofound.

  "I cannot endure," continued Pepe, "those glazed and painted imagesthat resemble so much--God forgive me for the comparison--the dolls thatlittle girls pay with. And what am I to say of the theatrical robes thatcover them? I saw a St. Joseph with a mantle whose appearance I will notdescribe, out of respect for the holy patriarch and for the church ofwhich he is the patron. On the altar are crowded together images inthe worst possible taste; and the innumerable crowns, branches, stars,moons, and other ornaments of metal or gilt paper have an air of anironmongery that offends the religious sentiment and depresses the soul.Far from lifting itself up to religious contemplation, the soul sinks,and the idea of the ludicrous distracts it. The great works of art whichgive sensible form to ideas, to dogmas, to religious faith, to mysticexaltation, fulfil a noble mission. The caricatures, the aberrations oftaste, the grotesque works with which a mistaken piety fills the church,also fulfil their object; but this is a sad one enough: They encouragesuperstition, cool enthusiasm, oblige the eyes of the believer to turnaway from the altar, and, with the eyes, the souls that have not a veryprofound and a very firm faith turn away also."

  "The doctrine of the iconoclasts, too," said Jacinto, "has, it seems,spread widely in Germany."

  "I am not an iconoclast, although I would prefer the destruction ofall the images to the exhibition of buffooneries of which I speak,"continued the young man. "Seeing it, one may justly advocate a return ofreligious worship to the august simplicity of olden times. But no; letus not renounce the admirable aid which all the arts, beginning withpoetry and ending with music, lend to the relations between man andGod. Let the arts live; let the utmost pomp be displayed in religiousceremonies. I am a partisan of pomp."

  "An artist, an artist, and nothing more than an artist!" exclaimedthe canon, shaking his head with a sorrowful air. "Fine pictures, finestatues, beautiful music; pleasure for the senses, and let the deviltake the soul!"

  "Apropos of music," said Pepe Rey, without observing the deplorableeffect which his words produced on both mother and daughter, "imaginehow disposed my mind would be to religious contemplation on entering thecathedral, when just at that moment, and precisely at the offertory athigh mass, the organist played a passage from 'Traviata.'"

  "Senor de Rey is right in that," said the little lawyer emphatically."The organist played the other day the whole of the drinking song andthe waltz from the same opera, and afterward a rondeau from the 'GrandeDuchesse.'"

  "But when I felt my heart sink," continued the engineer implacably,"was when I saw an image of the Virgin, which seems to be held in greatveneration, judging from the crowd before it and the multitude of taperswhich lighted it. They have dressed her in a puffed-out garment ofvelvet, embroidered with gold, of a shape so extraordinary that itsurpasses the most extravagant of the fashions of the day. Her faceis almost hidden under a voluminous frill, made of innumerable rowsof lace, crimped with a crimping-iron, and her crown, half a yard inheight, surrounded by golden rays, looks like a hideous catafalqueerected over her head. Of the same material, and embroidered in the samemanner, are the trousers of the Infant Jesus. I will not go on, for todescribe the Mother and the Child might perhaps lead me to commit someirreverence. I will only say that it was impossible for me to keep fromsmiling, and for a short time I contemplated the profaned image, sayingto myself: 'Mother and Lady mine, what a sight they have made of you!'"

  As he ended Pepe looked at his hearers, and although, owing to thegathering darkness, he could not see their countenances distinctly, hefancied that in some of them he perceived signs of angry consternation.

  "Well, Senor Don Jose!" exclaimed the canon quickly, smiling witha triumphant expression, "that image, which to your philosophy andpantheism appears so ridiculous, is Our Lady of Help, patronessand advocate of Orbajosa, whose inhabitants regard her with so muchveneration that they would be quite capable of dragging any one throughthe streets who should speak ill of her. The chronicles and history,Senor Don Jose, are full of the miracles which she has wrought, and evenat the present day we receive constantly incontrovertible proofs of herprotection. You must know also that your aunt, Dona Perfecta, is chieflady in waiting to the Most Holy Virgin of Help, and that the dressthat to you appears so grotesque--went out from this house, and that thetrousers of the Infant are the work of the skilful needle and the ardentpiety combined of your cousin Rosarito, who is now listening to us."

  Pepe Rey was greatly disconcerted. At the same instant Dona Perfectarose abruptly from her seat, and, without saying a word, walkedtoward the house, followed by the Penitentiary. The others rose also.Recovering from his stupefaction, the young man was about to beg hiscousin's pardon for his irreverence, when he observed that Rosarito wasweeping. Fixing on her cousin a look of friendly and gentle reproof, shesaid:

  "What ideas you have!"

  The voice of Dona Perfecta was heard crying in an altered accent:

  "Rosario! Rosario!"

  The latter ran toward the house.