Marianela 17

Marianela 17

"And I answered, and I answer once more; Yes--operate; and God's will

be done. Onwards!"

 

"Aye, onwards! You have taken my motto."

 

Don Francisco rose and wrung the surgeon's hands, that were so like a

lion's paws.

 

"In this climate the operation may be favorably performed early in

October," Golfin went on. "To-morrow we will decide on the regimen to

which we must subject our patient. Meanwhile we will be going, for it

is fresh up on this hill."

 

Penáguilas pressed shelter and supper on his friends, but they would

not accept. They set out homewards with Nela, whom Teodoro insisted

on taking with him, and Don Francisco kept them company as far as the

works.

 

Soothed by the silence and beauty of the night, they fell into

conversation on lighter themes--on the yield and profits of the

mines, and other local matters. The Golfins having reached home, Don

Francisco turned back alone and heavy-hearted, walking slowly, with

his eyes fixed on the ground. He was thinking of the terrible days of

doubt and hope, of expectation and anxiety which were coming on him.

Presently he was met by Choto, and the pair lazily climbed the wooden

stair. The moon gave them light, and the old man's shadow went up in

front of him, broken by the steps into a zigzag monster that leaped

from plank to plank. The dog trotted by its side and Don Francisco, in

the absence of any other mortal to whom he could confide the thoughts

that wearied his brain, presently said:

 

"Oh Choto! will it succeed?"

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XII.

 

DOCTOR CELIPIN.

 

 

That worthy, Señor Centeno, having refreshed his mind with the dull

columns of his newspaper, and 'Señana,' his wife, after enjoying the

more intoxicating delights of counting and feeling the coin in the

stocking, had taken themselves to bed. Children first and parents

after, they had all marched off to their respective couches. First

there was the mumbled Litany, sounding like some muttered gibberish;

then yawns, while the sluggard fingers made the sign of the cross--and

then the stony-hearted family slept.

 

When the house was as still as the grave itself, a soft rustling began

to be audible in the kitchen, like the stirring of bats coming out of

their hiding nooks to see life. The hampers opened and Celipin heard

these words:

 

"Celipin--look here; I have got something nice for you to-night."

 

Celipin could see nothing, but he put out his hand and took from

Nela's two _duros_. Having assured himself of their genuineness by

touch--since he could hardly have done so by sight--he remained

speechless with astonishment.

 

"Don Teodoro gave them to me," added the girl, "to buy myself a pair of

shoes. But I do not want shoes; so I give them to you, and so you will

get on faster."

 

"Hurrah! You are as good as the Holy Virgin, Nela--I want very little

more now, and when I have got another half-dozen or so of _reales_--you

shall see what Celipin is made of."

 

"Aye, and listen to me, child; the man who gave me that money ran about

the streets barefoot begging when he was a boy, and now...."

 

"You do not mean it! Don Teodoro? And now he has such lots of money.

They say six mules could not carry it all."

 

"Yes, and he slept in the streets, and was an errand boy, and had no

breeches--in short, was poorer than a rat. And his brother, Don Cárlos,

lived in an old-clothes shop."

 

"Lord save us! What wonderful things we live to hear of! Well, I will

go and find an old-clothes shop where I can live."

 

"Well, and after that he became a barber to earn a living and be able

to study."

 

"Ah...! Look here then; I have a great mind to go straight into a

barber's shop; I shall soon have to shave myself, and I am brisk and

quick enough, thank God!--Only wait till I get to Madrid--shaving on

one hand and studying on the other, at the end of two months I will

know everything. Look here, it has just struck me that I am made to

be a doctor.--Yes, a doctor, what with feeling pulses and looking at

tongues, that is the way to fill your pockets."

 

"Don Teodoro," Nela went on, "had much less than you, for you will

soon have five _duros_, and with five _duros_, you can get almost

everything. Don Teodoro and Don Cárlos were like the birds that fly

about without house or home, all alone in the world. Well, by managing

well, they got learned. Don Teodoro studied dead bodies, and Don

Cárlos studied stones, and so they learnt to be gentlemen, and men of

importance. And that is why Don Teodoro is such a friend to the poor.

Celipin, you should have seen him this evening when he jumped me upon

his shoulder--and then he gave me his cup of milk and looked at me as

if I were a lady."

 

"All strong, active men, are the same," said Celipin sharply. "You will

see how brave and fine I shall look when I wear a long cloak and a high

hat; and I will wear those stockings on my hands--gloves they call

them, and never take them off excepting to feel a pulse--I will have a

stick with a gilt knob and will wear such clothes! nothing shall ever

touch my skin but fine linen. Lord love you child! but you will laugh

to see me!"

 

"Do not be fancying that you can rise to such things at once--you who

are as bare as an egg," said the girl. "You must go step by step,

learning one thing to-day and another to-morrow. I advise you, before

you learn to cure sick folks, to learn to write; and so you ought, if

it is only to leave a letter for your mother, asking her to forgive

you, and telling her that you are gone away from home to improve

yourself, to make your way like Don Teodoro, and become a clever

doctor."

 

"Do not talk nonsense child. Who does not know that writing comes

first? Only let me get a pen in my hand, and you will see me flourish

away at the letters, and what beautiful fine strokes I will make

up and down, like Don Francisco Penáguilas' name at the end of a

letter.--Write? do not talk to me--in four days you will see what

letters I will write.--Aye, you shall hear them read and see what

grand ideas I can hatch out, and set them down too, in such fine words

as will make you all look foolish. Bless you child! but you have no

notion how clever I can be. I feel it inside my head here, buzzing

and humming, _burumbum, burumbum,_ like the water in the boiler of

a steam-engine. It will not let me sleep, and I feel as if all the

sciences in the world came rushing in and flapped blindly about like

bats, wanting me to study them.--All the sciences--I must learn them

all; I must not leave out one.--Well, you will see."

 

"But there must be a great many. Pablo Penáguilas knows them all, and

he told me that there are a great, great many, and that a man's whole

lifetime is not enough to learn even one."

 

"Never do you believe him.--Well, you will see what I can do."

 

"And the best of all is what Don Cárlos learns; why, only think, he

picks up a stone and makes brass of it; indeed, they do say he makes

silver, and even gold. Learn that science, Celipillo."

 

"Do not you be mistaken, Nela; there is nothing like knowing how to

take a wrist and look at a tongue, and tell in a minute in what corner

of a body the mischief lies. They say that Don Teodoro can take a man's

eye out and put him in a new one, that he can see with as well as if he

had been born with it. Just think what it is to see a man dying, and to

make him hale and sound again only by making him swallow half-a-dozen

flies, let us say, stewed down on a Monday with hazel twigs gathered

by a maid named Juana--I say that is something worth doing.--Yes, you

shall see, you shall see what I will do. Doctor Celipin de Socartes. I

tell you my fame will reach as far as Havana."

 

"Good, good!" cried Nela, delighted. "But remember, you must be a good

boy, because the reason your parents have taught you nothing, is only

because they were not clever enough, and so, as you are clever, you

must pray for them to the Holy Virgin, and not forget to send them

some of all the money you are going to get."

 

"I will be sure to send them some. You see, it is not because I owe

them any grudge that I am going to run away; and before long, very

soon, you will see a porter come up from the station so loaded with

big parcels that he can hardly stand, and what will they be? Why,

petticoats for mother and the girls, and a tall hat for father--and

you--I will send you a pair of ear-rings."

 

"You are in a hurry with your presents," said Nela, smothering a laugh.

"Ear-rings for me!"

 

"Stop; I have just got another idea. Shall I tell you? It is that you

should come with me; two of us together we should help each other to

earn money and to learn. For you are clever too, I am too sharp not to

see that; and you can learn to be a lady as I can to be a gentleman. Oh

Lord! how I should laugh to see you playing the piano like Doña Sofía."

 

"What a simpleton you are! Why I am no good for anything. If I went

with you, I should only be a clog and burden to you."

 

"But they say now that Don Pablo is going to be made to see, and when

he can see, you will have nothing to do in Socartes. What do you think

of my plan? Why do not you answer?"

 

There was a long pause, during which Nela made no answer. Celipin asked

her again but got no answer.

 

"Go to sleep, Celipin," she said from the bottom of the baskets. "I am

dreadfully sleepy."

"If my brain will let me sleep, God save us!"