Olalla

MP3 Audio CD. Olalla



'Now,' said the doctor, 'my part is done, and, I may say, with some
vanity, well done. It remains only to get you out of this cold and
poisonous city, and to give you two months of a pure air and an easy
conscience. The last is your affair. To the first I think I can help
you. It fells indeed rather oddly; it was but the other day the Padre
came in from the country; and as he and I are old friends, although of
contrary professions, he applied to me in a matter of distress among some
of his parishioners. This was a family--but you are ignorant of Spain,
and even the names of our grandees are hardly known to you; suffice it,
then, that they were once great people, and are now fallen to the brink
of destitution. Nothing now belongs to them but the residencia, and
certain leagues of desert mountain, in the greater part of which not even
a goat could support life. But the house is a fine old place, and stands
at a great height among the hills, and most salubriously; and I had no
sooner heard my friend's tale, than I remembered you. I told him I had a
wounded officer, wounded in the good cause, who was now able to make a
change; and I proposed that his friends should take you for a lodger.
Instantly the Padre's face grew dark, as I had maliciously foreseen it
would. It was out of the question, he said. Then let them starve, said
I, for I have no sympathy with tatterdemalion pride. There-upon we
separated, not very content with one another; but yesterday, to my
wonder, the Padre returned and made a submission: the difficulty, he
said, he had found upon enquiry to be less than he had feared; or, in
other words, these proud people had put their pride in their pocket. I
closed with the offer; and, subject to your approval, I have taken rooms
for you in the residencia. The air of these