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  TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

  * Italics are denoted by underscores as in _italics_.
  * Bold text is denoted by equals as in =bold=.
  * Small caps are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS.
  * Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected.
  * Original spelling was kept, but variant spellings were made
    consistent when a predominant usage was found.
  * Throughout the text the following replacements were made:

    “Maria”    by “María”,
    “Telleria” by “Tellería”,
    “Joaquin”  by “Joaquín”,
    “Fontan”   by “Fontán”,
    “Leopold”  by “Leopoldo”,
    “Agustin”  by “Agustín”,
    “Perez”    by “Pérez”.

  * The following changes were also made:

    Page  18: “Atheneam”  replaced by “Atheneum”.
    Page  28: “Centa”     replaced by “Ceuta”.
    Page  75: “Corralles” replaced by “Corrales”.
    Page 144: “Cerinola”  replaced by “Ceriñola”.
    Page 147: “Cayentano” replaced by “Cayetano”.
    Page 199: “Arragon”   replaced by “Aragón” (twice).
    Page 246: “Monilla”   replaced by “Monina”.
    Page 274: “her papa”  replaced by “your papa” (twice--after
              checking the Spanish original version).




  LEON ROCH
  A ROMANCE

  BY
  B. PÉREZ GALDÓS
  Author of “Gloria,” etc.

  FROM THE SPANISH BY CLARA BELL

  --AUTHORIZED EDITION--

  IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I.

  REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE UNITED STATES

  NEW YORK
  WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER
  11 MURRAY STREET
  1888




  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886
  BY WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER
  in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington


THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER




CONTENTS.

VOLUME I.


  CHAPTER                                             PAGE

       I.--FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME,                    1

      II.--LIFE AT A WATERING PLACE,                     9

     III.--IN WHICH THE READER WILL ENJOY HEARING THE
             PRAISES LAVISHED BY SPANIARDS ON THEIR
             COUNTRY AND COUNTRY-MEN,                   15

      IV.--MORE CONVERSATION, GIVING US SOME IDEA
             OF THE SPANISH CHARACTER,                  24

       V.--ILLUSTRATING ANOTHER TRAIT OF SPANISH
             CHARACTER,                                 31

      VI.--PEPA,                                        37

     VII.--TWO MEN AND THEIR SCHEMES IN LIFE,           45

    VIII.--MARÍA EGYPTIACA,                             57

      IX.--THE MARQUESA TELLERÍA,                       69

       X.--THE MARQUIS,                                 79

      XI.--LEOPOLDO,                                    88

     XII.--GUSTAVO,                                     94

    XIII.--THE LAST ILLUSION,                          103

     XIV.--HUSBAND AND WIFE,                           111

      XV.--A MODUS VIVENDI,                            127

     XVI.--IN THE DOG-DAYS,                            133

    XVII.--DESERTERS,                                  142

   XVIII.--THE ASCETIC,                                149

     XIX.--THE MARQUESA GOES TO A CONCERT,             159

      XX.--THE OLD, OLD DRAMA,                         166

     XXI.--A STRUGGLE WITH THE ANGEL,                  179

    XXII.--CONQUERED BY THE ANGEL,                     185

   XXIII.--WEATHER PERMITTING,                         188

    XXIV.--REMINISCENCES--ANXIETIES,                   200

     XXV.--MARÍA EGYPTIACA DRESSES IN GREY AND DOES
             NOT WASH HER HANDS,                       211

    XXVI.--THE DEVOURING OGRE--CROUP,                  222

   XXVII.--THE MOTHER,                                 238

  XXVIII.--THE MARQUIS DE FÚCAR ENJOYS THE SPECIAL
             FAVOUR OF HEAVEN,                         242

    XXIX.--ERUNT DUO IN CARNE UNA,                     253

     XXX.--AN IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS; ALARIC,
             ATTILA, AND OMAR,                         263

    XXXI.--THE CRISIS,                                 275

   XXXII.--REASON _versus_ PASSION,                    293




LEON ROCH




LEON ROCH

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.


                                       “_Ugoibea_, AUGUST 30th.

“DEAR LEON: Think no more of my letter of yesterday; it must have
crossed yours, which I have just received. Vexation, and a fit of
petty jealousy, made me write a great deal of nonsense, and I am
ashamed of having covered my paper with so many dreadful words, mixed
up with such childish prevarications; but no--I am not ashamed; I can
only laugh at myself and my style, and ask you to forgive me. If I
had only had a little patience and waited for your explanations--but
that again is nonsense.--Jealousy and Patience! Who ever saw the
two things combined in one person? You see there is no end to my
absurdities; this proves that after having been a fool, though only
for a day, a woman cannot recover her natural balance of mind all at
once.

“But now I am recovering mine. An end to recrimination; I am
firmly resolved never again to be irritable and suspicious and
inquisitive--as you say I am. Your explanations really and entirely
satisfy me; their frankness and fulness impress me strongly--I hardly
know why--and leave no room in my mind for doubt, but fill my soul
with a conviction--how can I express it? that is in itself a sort
of affection, that is its twin brother and as inseparable from it
as--as--I cannot finish my sentence; but what does it matter?--To
proceed; I was saying that I fully accept your explanation. A denial
would have increased my suspicions; your confession has removed
them. You tell me that you did love--no, that is not the word, that
you had a fancy, a mere fancy, as a boy--as children together--for
Pepa de Fúcar; that you have known her since she was little, and
that you played together--I remember you used to tell me something
about it in Madrid, when we first made your acquaintance. It was
she, no doubt, who used to go with you to pick up the blossoms
fallen from the orange-trees--who was frightened at the rustling
made by the silk-worms when they were feeding, and for whom you
used to make crowns of Marvel of Peru? Yes, you told me many funny
stories of your companion as a child. You and she used to dye your
cheeks with blackberries, and make paper crowns to wear; you loved
to take birds’ nests, and her greatest delight was to pull off her
shoes and stockings and paddle in the streams among the rushes and
water-plants. One day, almost at the same instant, you fell from a
tree and she was bitten by some reptile. That was Pepa de Fúcar, was
it not? You see I remember very well, and could write your history
quite accurately.

“The truth is that I really did not pay much attention to those baby
stories; but when I saw the girl, and when they said you were in love
with her.--It is ten days ago and I still feel as if I were being
suffocated--as I did when I first heard it. Believe me; I felt as if
the world were coming to an end, as if time were standing still--I
cannot express the feeling--or had turned backward and revealed
some horrible spot, some unknown desert where--another unfinished
sentence! To proceed.

“I remember now some more stories of your childish amusements, which
you told me not long ago. How such trifles cling to our memories!
When you were a boy, and were studying that science of stones of
which I can never see the use; when she--for I think that again
it was Pepa de Fúcar--had left off putting her feet in the water
and staining your cheeks with blackberry juice or decking herself
with your paper crowns, that you played at being lovers with less
innocence than before, but still--come, I will allow thus much--still
with perfect innocence. She was at some school where there were a
great number of lilac shrubs, and a porter who undertook to receive
and deliver notes. Are you not astonished at my good memory? I even
remember that porter’s name; it was Escoiquiz.

“Well--enough of ancient history. What you have just told me, what
I did not know till I just now read your letter (and I repeat that I
was not particularly pleased to hear it) was that two years ago you
met again where the orange-trees blow and the silk-worms feed and
the water flows in the brooks; that you suffered a slight illusion,
so to speak, and at that time began to feel a sincere affection for
her, which grew and grew until--and here I come to the story--until
you knew me.--Thank you Sir, and I make you a pretty curtsy, for the
string of compliments, polite hints, protestations, and loving words
which here follow. This shower of praises fills a whole page. Such
pages as these come before us like a face we love, and this one made
me cry with joy. Thanks again, a thousand thanks. It is all charming,
and what you say of me is much too kind and good. You are worth a
hundred of me.--You live for me? Oh Leon! How can I do better than
believe all these romantic speeches? My heart opens wide to accept
them all. I am a good catholic and have been brought up to be a true
believer.

“Yes, I will be so foolish--I have read that blessed page once more.
Oh! it is good to be told that ‘a true, deep, and lofty devotion
has blotted out that fancy and left no trace of it’--very good!
‘the illusions of childhood rarely last into mature years’ of
course; ‘Your sentiments are sincere, and your intentions thoroughly
honest’--yes no doubt; ‘The voice I heard, the words that made me
feel as if the world had come to an end, were simply one of those
wild suppositions thrown out at random, to be taken up by malice
and used by her as terrible weapons’--so it is, so it is; ‘Pepa de
Fúcar is as indifferent to you at this moment as any other woman
living’--that is perfect, exquisite! and finally ‘I and I alone’--me
and no one else.--What joy to press my hand closely to my heart while
I think to myself--me, me alone, and no one in the world but me!

“A potent argument in your favour has just occurred to me; Pepa de
Fúcar is immensely rich and I am almost poor. However, when one
has faith no arguments are needed, and I have faith in you. Every
one who knows you, says you are a model of uprightness and noble
generosity--a rare thing in these days. I am as proud as I am
flattered. How good God has been to me in bestowing on me a gift
which, by all accounts, is so seldom found in this world!

“I cannot avoid telling you--though this letter already seems
interminable--the impression that girl produced on me, even setting
aside the rancour I could not help feeling at first. But now the
storm is over; I can judge her coolly and impartially, and though,
when I heard what you know, I thought she must be perfectly
charming, I see her now in her true light. Every one talks of her
shameful extravagance. It is an insult to Heaven and humanity! Papa
says she spends enough in clothes in a week to support several
families comfortably. She is elegant, no doubt; but sometimes very
affected--as much as to say: ‘Gentlemen, I behave in this way that
you may all see how rich I am.’ Mamma says, no man would ever
think of