The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗

man, whom I asked if those were

the apartments of Signor Don Pedro de la Fuenta. Yes, answered

he, but you cannot speak to him at present. I should be very

glad, said I, just to say, How are you? I bring him news of his

family. An you brought him news of the pope, replied he, I could

not introduce you just now. He is writing, and while his wits are

at work, he must not be disturbed. He will not be able to receive

company till noon; take a turn, and come back about that time.

 

I departed, and walked about town all the morning, incessantly

meditating on the reception my uncle would give me. I think, said

I within myself; he will be overjoyed to see me. I measured his

feelings by my own, and prepared myself for a very affecting

discovery. I returned punctually to the appointed hour. You are

just in time, said the servant: my master was going out. Wait

here a moment: I will announce you. With these words, he left me

in the antechamber. He returned almost immediately, and showed

me into his master’s room. The face struck me all at once as a

family likeness. To be sure he was the very image of my uncle

Thomas; they might have been taken for twins. I bowed down to the

ground, and introduced myself as the son of Master Nicholas de la

Fuenta, the barber of Olm�do. I likewise informed him, that I had

been working at my father’s trade in Madrid, for these three

weeks, as a journeyman, and intended making the tour of Spain to

complete my education. While I was speaking, my uncle was

evidently in a brown study. He seemed to doubt whether he should

disown me at once, or get rid of me with some little sacrifice to

decency. The latter course he adopted. Affecting the affable:

Well, my good kinsman, how are your father and your uncles? Do

they get on in the world? I began thereupon by laying before him

the family knack at propagation. All the children, male and

female, called over by their names, with their godfathers and

godmothers included in the list! He took no extravagant interest

in the particulars of my tale; but leading to his own purposes,

Diego, replied he, I am quite of your mind. You should go from

place to place, and see a variety of practice. I would not have

you tarry longer at Madrid: it is a very dangerous residence for

youth; you may get into bad habits, my sweet fellow. Other towns

will suit you better; the state of society in the provinces is

more patriarchal and philosophical. Determine on emigration; and

when your departure is fixed, come and take your leave. I will

contribute a pistole to the tour of Spain. With this kind

assurance, he handed me out of the room, and sent me packing.

 

I had not worldly wisdom enough to find out that he wanted to get

quit of me. I went back to our shop, and gave my master an

account of the visit I had paid. He looked no deeper than myself

into Signor Don Pedro’s motives, and observed: I cannot help

differing from your worthy uncle, so far from advising you to

travel the provinces, the real thing would be, in my opinion, to

give you a comfortable settlement in this city. He is hand in

glove with the first people; it is an easy matter for him to

establish you in a great family; and that is a for tune at once.

Struck with this lucky discovery, which seemed to settle the

point without difficulty, I called on my uncle again two days

afterwards, and made a proposal to him for a situation about

some leading character at court. But the hint was not taken

kindly. A proud man, living at free quarters among the great, and

dining with them in a family party, did not exactly wish that,

while he was sitting at my lord’s table, his nephew should be a

guest in the servants’ hall. Little Diego might bring a scandal

on Signor Don Pedro. He had no hesitation, therefore, in fairly

turning me out of doors, and that with a flea in my ear. What,

you little rascal, said he in a fit of extravagance, do you mean

to relinquish your calling? Begone, I consign you to the reptile

whose pernicious counsels will be your ruin. Take your leave of

these premises, and never set your foot on them again, or you

shall have the reception you deserve! I was absolutely stunned at

this language, and still more at the peremptory tone my uncle

assumed. With tears in my eyes I withdrew, quite overcome by his

severity. Yet, as I had always been lively and confident in my

temper, I soon wiped away my tears. My grief was even turned into

resentment, and I determined to take no further notice of this

unnatural relative, whose kind offices I had hitherto been

contented to want.

 

My attention was henceforth directed to the cultivation of my

professional talent; I was quite a plodding fellow at my trade. I

scraped away all day; and in the evening, by way of relief to my

scraping, I twanged the guitar. My master on that instrument was

an old Senor Escudero whom I shaved. He taught me music in

return; and he was an adept. To be sure he had formerly been a

chorister in a cathedral. His name was Marcos de Obregon. He was

a man of the world, with good natural parts and acquired

knowledge, which jointly induced him to fix on me as an adopted

son. He was engaged as an attendant on a physician’s lady,

resident within thirty yards of our house. I went to him in the

evening, when shop was shut, and we two, sitting on the threshold

of the door, made up a little concert not displeasing to the

neighbourhood. It was not that our voices were very fine; but in

thrumming on the catgut, we made a pretty regular accompaniment

to our duet, and filled up the harmony sufficiently for the

gratification of our hearers. Our music was particularly

agreeable to Donna Mergelina, the physician’s wife; she came into

the passage to hear us, and sometimes encored us in her favourite

airs. Her husband did not interfere with her amusement. Though a

Spaniard and in years, he was not possessed with jealousy;

besides, his profession took up all his time; and as he came home

in the evening, worn out with his numerous visits, he went to bed

at an early hour, without troubling himself about his wife or our

concerts. Possibly, if he thought about them at all, he might

consider them as little likely to produce dangerous consequences.

He had an additional security in his wife. Mergelina was young

and handsome with a witness; but of so fierce a modesty, that she

started at the very shadow of a man. How could he take umbrage at

an amusement of so harmless and decorous a nature? He gave us

leave to sing our hearts out.

 

One evening, as I came to the physician’s door, intending to take

my usual recreation, I found the old squire waiting for me. He

took me by the hand: saying that he wished to take a little walk

with me before we struck up our little concert. At the same time

he drew me aside into a by-street, where, finding an opportunity

of opening his mind: Diego, my good lad, said he with a

melancholy air, I want to give you a hint in private. I much

fear, my good and amiable youth, that we shall both have reason

to repent of beguiling our evenings with little musical parties

at my master’s door. Rely on my sincere friendship: I do not

grudge your lessons in singing and on the guitar; but if I could

have foreseen the storm now brewing, in the name of charity! I

would have selected some other spot to communicate my

instructions. This address alarmed me. I entreated the gentle

squire to be more explicit, and to tell me what we had to fear;

for I was no Hector, and the tour of Spain was not yet finished.

I will relate to you, replied he, what it concerns you to know,

that you may take proper measure of our present danger.

 

When I got into the service of the physician, about a year ago,

he said one morning, after having introduced me to his wife:

There, Marcos, you see your mistress; that is the lady you are to

accompany in all her peregrinations. I was smitten with Donna

Mergelina: she was lovely in the extreme, a model for an artist,

and her principal attraction was the pleasantness of her

deportment. Honoured sir, replied I to the physician, it is too

great a happiness to be in the train of so charming a lady. My

answer was taken amiss by Mergelina, who said rather crustily, A

pleasant gentleman this! He is perfectly free and easy. Believe

me! His fine speeches may go a begging for me. These words,

dropped from such lovely lips, seemed rather inconsistent; the

manners and ideas of bumpkins and dairy-maids coupled with all

the graces of the most lovely woman in the world! As for her

husband, he was used to her ways; and, hugging himself on the

unrivalled character of his rib, Marcos, said he, my wife is a

miracle of chastity. Then, observing her put on her veil, and

make herself ready to go to mass, he told me to attend on her at

church. We were no sooner in the street than we met, and it was

no wonder, blades who, struck with Donna Mergelina’s genteel

carriage, told her a thousand flattering tales as they passed by.

She was not backward in her answers; but silly and ill-timed,

beyond what you can conceive. They were all in amaze, and could

not imagine how a woman should take it amiss to be complimented.

Why really! madam, said I to her at first, you had better be

silent, or shut your ears to their addresses, than reply with

asperity. No, no, replied she: I will teach these coxcombs that I

am not a woman to put up with impertinence. In short, her

absurdity went so far, that I could not help telling her my mind,

at the hazard of her displeasure. I gave her to understand, yet

with the greatest possible caution, that she was unjust to

nature, whose handiwork she marred by her preposterous ferocity;

that a woman of mild and polished manners might inspire love

without the aid of beauty; whereas the loveliest of the sex,

divested of female softness, was in danger of becoming the public

scorn. To this ratiocination, I added collateral arguments,

always directed to the amendment of her manners. After having

moralized to no purpose, I was afraid my freedom might exasperate

my mistress, and draw upon me some taunting repartee.

Nevertheless she did not mutiny against my advice; but silently

rendered it of no avail, and thus we went on from day to day.

 

I was weary of pointing out her errors to no purpose, and gave

her up to the ferocious temperament of her nature. Yet, could you

think it? the savage humour of that proud woman is entirely

changed within these two months. She has a kind word for all the

world, and manners the most accommodating. It is no longer the

same Mergelina who gave such homely answers to the compliments of

her swains: she is become assailable by flattery; loves to be

told she is handsome, that a man cannot look at her without

paying for it: her ears itch for fine speeches, and she is become

a very woman. Such