Doña Perfecta

“ Pepe Rey fixed his eyes on his aunt’s countenance, as if he wished to penetrate with his glance the inmost depths of her soul.
“I say that if you wish to go, do so,” repeated Doña Perfecta, with admirable serenity, while her countenance expressed the most complete and unaffected sincerity.
“No, señora: I do not wish to go.”
“So much the better; I think you are right. You are more tranquil here, notwithstanding the suspicions with which you are tormenting yourself. Poor Pepillo! We poor rustics of Orbajosa live happy in our ignorance. ”

“ Her eyes black and well-opened, her nose finely and delicately shaped, her forehead broad and smooth, she was considered by all who saw her as a finished type of the human figure; but there rested on those features a certain hard and proud expression which excited a feeling of antipathy. As some persons, although ugly, attract; Doña Perfecta repelled. ”

“ For her, as I confess for me, “Doña Perfecta” is not realistic enough—realistic as it is; for realism at its best is not tendencious. It does not seek to grapple with human problems, but is richly content with portraying human experiences; and I think Señora Pardo-Bazan is right in regarding “Doña Perfecta” as transitional, and of a period when the author had not yet assimilated in its fullest meaning the faith he had imbibed. ”

“ Doña Perfecta sank again on the sofa; but she shed no tears, and a convulsive tremor agitated her frame.
“So that for this infamous atheist,” she exclaimed, with frank rage, “there are no social conventionalities, there is nothing but caprice. This is base avarice. My daughter is rich!”
“If you think to wound me with that treacherous weapon, evading the question and giving a distorted meaning to my sentiments in order to offend my dignity, you are mistaken, dear aunt. Call me mercenary, if you choose. God knows what I am.” ”

“ Ah, my young gentleman! one does not enter into the human heart through the tunnel of a railroad, or descend into its depths through the shaft of a mine. You cannot read in the conscience of another with the microscope of a naturalist, nor decide the question of another’s culpability measuring ideas with a theodolite.”
“For God’s sake, dear aunt!”
“Why do you pronounce the name of God when you do not believe in him?” said Doña Perfecta, in solemn accents. “If you believed in him, if you were a good Christian, you would not dare to form evil judgments about my conduct. ”

“ Rosario looked dejected, and was listening with an air of melancholy indifference to the words of the little lawyer, who, having installed himself at her side, kept up a continuous stream of fulsome flatteries, seasoned with ill-timed jests and fatuous remarks in the worst possible taste.
“The worst of it is,” said Doña Perfecta to her nephew—surprising the glance which he cast in the direction of the ill-assorted pair—“the worst of it is, that you have offended poor Rosario. You must do all in your power to make your peace with her. The poor child is so good!” ”

“ Doña Perfecta’s responsibility is certainly very great. What will be the extent of mine! Ah, dear father! believe nothing of what you hear about me; believe only what I shall tell you. If they tell you that I have committed a deliberate piece of villany, answer that it is a lie. It is difficult, very difficult, for me to judge myself, in the state of disquietude in which I am, but I dare assure you that I have not deliberately given cause for scandal. You know well to what extremes passion can lead when circumstances favor its fierce, its all-invading growth. ”

“ Your son has great merit, every one knows it well. Rosarito liked him, and he liked Rosarito. The matter seemed settled. Doña Perfecta herself, without being very enthusiastic, doubtless on account of our origin, seemed favorably disposed toward it, because of her great esteem and veneration for me, as her confessor and friend. But suddenly this unlucky young man presents himself. ”

“ The affair of the night before last, as my uncle related it to me, seems to me a vile trick on Don José to obtain his object by means of a scandal. A great many men do that. Ah, Divine Saviour, I don’t know how there are women who can look any man in the face unless it be a priest.”
“Be silent, be silent!” said Doña Perfecta, with vehemence. “Don’t mention the occurrence of the night before last to me. What a horrible affair! Maria Remedios, I understand now how anger can imperil the salvation of a soul. I am burning with rage—unhappy that I am, to see such things and not to be a man! ”

“ Doña Perfecta’s eyes grew moist.
“My dear aunt,” said Pepe, feeling his anger vanish, “I too have committed some faults since I have been a guest in this house.”
“Don’t be foolish. Don’t talk about committing faults. Among the persons of the same family every thing is forgiven.”
“But Rosarito—where is she?” asked the young man, rising. “Am I not to see her to-day, either?”
“She is better. Do you know that she did not wish to come down stairs?” ”

“ And now you are a man, a grown-up man. Well, well! How the years pass! This is my daughter Rosario.”
As she said this they reached the parlor on the ground floor, which was generally used as a reception-room, and Doña Perfecta presented her daughter to Pepe.
Rosario was a girl of delicate and fragile appearance, that revealed a tendency to pensive melancholy. In her delicate and pure countenance there was something of the soft, pearly pallor which most novelists attribute to their heroines, and without which sentimental varnish it appears that no Enriquieta or Julia can be interesting. ”

“ Understand this well, child; open your understanding and allow an idea that is not vulgar to enter it—rise above yourself; think lofty thoughts, Remedios!”
Don Inocencio’s niece was struck dumb by so much loftiness of soul. She opened her mouth to say something that should be in consonance with so sublime an idea, but she only breathed a sigh.
“Like the Moors,” repeated Doña Perfecta. “It is a question of Moors and Christians. And did you suppose that by giving a fright to my nephew all would be ended? How foolish you are! Don’t you see that his friends support him? ”

“ The nephew, though selfish and little, has moments of almost being a good fellow; the sister, though she is really such a lamb of meekness, becomes a cat, and scratches Don Inocencio dreadfully when he weakens in his design against Pepe.
Rosario, one of the sweetest and purest images of girlhood that I know in fiction, abandons herself with equal passion to the love she feels for her cousin Pepe, and to the love she feels for her mother, Doña Perfecta. She is ready to fly with him, and yet she betrays him to her mother’s pitiless hate. ”

“ Doña Perfecta was talking with the Penitentiary, as he entered, and Rosarito was sitting alone, with her eyes fixed on the door. She was no doubt waiting for her cousin.
“Come here, you rascal,” said his aunt, smiling with very little spontaneity. “You have insulted us, you great atheist! but we forgive you. I am well aware that my daughter and myself are two rustics who are incapable of soaring to the regions of mathematics where you dwell, but for all that it is possible that you may one day get down on your knees to us and beg us to teach you the Christian doctrine.” ”

“ Imagine that he gets the fright and that he has a few bones broken, in addition—without any serious wounds, of course. Well, in that case, either his courage will fail him and he will leave Orbajosa, or he will be obliged to keep his bed for a fortnight. But they must be told to make the fright a good one. No killing, of course; they must take care of that, but just a good beating.”
“Maria,” said Doña Perfecta haughtily, “you are incapable of a lofty thought, of a great and saving resolve. What you advise me is an unworthy piece of cowardice.” ”

“ We were in a fair way to conquer, and suddenly we are conquered. Ah, niece! convince yourself of one thing. As matters are now, Jacinto deserves something a great deal better than that crazy girl.”
“Caprices and obstinate notions!” responded Maria, with an ill-humor that was far from respectful. “That’s a pretty thing to say now, uncle! The great minds are outshining themselves, now. Doña Perfecta with her lofty ideas, and you with your doubts and fears—of much use either of you is. ”

“ Rosario followed her on her knees. At the same instant three blows were heard, three crashes, three reports. It was the heart of Maria Remedios knocking at the door through the knocker. The house trembled with awful dread. Mother and daughter stood motionless as statues.
A servant went down stairs to open the door, and shortly afterward Maria Remedios, who was not now a woman but a basilisk enveloped in a mantle, entered Doña Perfecta’s room. Her face, flushed with anxiety, exhaled fire.
“He is there, he is there!” ”

“ She smiled sweetly as she uttered the last words, and taking a tone of familiar and affectionate admonition, she added:
“My dear boy, the people of Orbajosa may be rude and boorish rustics, without learning, or polish, or fine manners; but in loyalty and good faith we yield to no one—to no one, I say, no one.”
“Don’t suppose,” said the young man, “that I accuse any one in this house. But that my implacable and cruel enemy is in this city, I am persuaded.”
“I wish you would show me that stage villain,” responded Doña Perfecta, smiling again. ”

“ What is her name?”
“Doña Perfecta Rey de Polentinos.”
“Ah! I know her by reputation. She is an excellent person, and the only one of whom I have not heard the garlic-venders speak ill. When I was here before I heard her goodness, her charity, her innumerable virtues, everywhere extolled.”
“Yes, my aunt is very kind, very amiable,” said Rey.
Then he fell into a thoughtful silence.
“But now I remember!” exclaimed Pinzon suddenly. “How one thing fits in with another! Yes, I heard in Madrid that you were going to be married to a cousin of yours. All is clear now. ”

“ Since character and courage have sunk so low in unhappy Orbajosa; since our town appears disposed to hold up its face to be spat upon by half a dozen soldiers and a corporal, let us find protection in union among ourselves.”
“I will protect myself in whatever way I can,” said Doña Perfecta resignedly, clasping her hands. “God’s will be done!”
“Such a stir about nothing! By the Lord! In this house they are all afraid of their shadows,” exclaimed Caballuco, half seriously, half jestingly. ”

“ You are as brutal as you are cowardly,” said Doña Perfecta, turning pale. “Why do you talk about killing? I want no one killed, much less my nephew—a person whom I love, in spite of his wickedness.”
“A homicide! What an atrocity!” exclaimed Don Inocencio, scandalized. “The man is mad!”
“To kill! The very idea of killing a man horrifies me, Caballuco,” said Doña Perfecta, closing her mild eyes. “Poor man! Ever since you have been wanting to show your bravery, you have been howling like a ravening wolf. Go away, Ramos; you terrify me.”
“Doesn’t the mistress say she is afraid? ”

“ Have you never heard of Caballuco?” said the countryman, amazed at the crass ignorance of Doña Perfecta’s nephew. “He is a very brave man, a fine rider, and the best connoisseur of horses in all the surrounding country. We think a great deal of him in Orbajosa; and he is well worthy of it. Just as you see him, he is a power in the place, and the governor of the province takes off his hat to him.” ”

“ Is a person of one’s own blood, one who bears one’s name,” said Doña Perfecta, “to be treated like a stranger? You are my nephew, you are the son of the best and the most virtuous of men, of my dear brother Juan, and that is sufficient. Yesterday afternoon the secretary of the bishop came here to tell me that his lordship is greatly displeased because I have you in my house.”
“And that too?” murmured the canon. ”

“ Caballuco had leaned forward in his chair and was resting his elbows on his knees; when the canon ended he took his hand and kissed it with fervor.
“A better man was never born,” said Uncle Licurgo, wiping, or pretending to wipe away a tear.
“Long life to the Señor Penitentiary!” cried Frasquito Gonzalez, rising to his feet and throwing his cap up to the ceiling.
“Silence!” said Doña Perfecta. “Sit down, Frasquito! You are one of those with whom it is always much cry and little wool.” ”

“ They are each of mixed motives, mixed qualities; none of them is quite a monster; though those who are badly mixed do such monstrous things.
Pepe Rey, who is such a good fellow—so kind, and brave, and upright, and generous, so fine a mind, and so high a soul—is tactless and imprudent; he even condescends to the thought of intrigue; and though he rejects his plots at last, his nature has once harbored deceit. Don Inocencio, the priest, whose control of Doña Perfecta’s conscience has vitiated the very springs of goodness in her, is by no means bad, aside from his purposes. ”

“ Hearing these words and seeing his kind aunt’s deprecating attitude, Pepe felt ashamed of the sternness of his last words, and he made an effort to recover his serenity. The venerable Penitentiary extricated him from his embarrassing position, saying with his accustomed benevolent smile:
“Señora Doña Perfecta, we must be tolerant with artists. Oh, I have known a great many of them! Those gentlemen, when they have before them a statue, a piece of rusty armor, a mouldy painting, or an old wall, forget every thing else. ”