Felipe Alfau - Chromos

“Most embarrassing when the guest happens to be a charming one with skirts.”

The old man disregarded the allusion: “And she still has that stupid tenderness about you.”

“It is none of your fault if she still has, eh?”

“No. I admit it. At another time, it was different. Now you are married and you threw your chance overboard.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know very well what I mean. That girl has loved you with a faithfulness of which I never suspected a human being capable. She has suffered on your account and she remains single because of you. If there is a man who never deserved that love, it is you, but you could never appreciate a fine thing.”

“But this is the first news I’ve had on the subject. Why! How flattering!”

“You knew it all the time, but you can act unconcerned and most candid when it suits you. As they say, acting dumb as if you were not. ”

“I assure you. ”

“. and you have been a fool. You could have married her and had everything you have been after for such a long time. You chose the other road and now you can take the consequences.”

Paco stood up in true surprise: “But do you mean to say that you would have let your daughter marry your own son?”

“Why not, if she did not know it and it could have made her happy? That is only a superstition like many others — but now it is too late. Now she knows it and she suffers from that superstition and now she is very unhappy because she has lost all hope.”

“You have told her, then?”

“How clever of you! Yes, I have. And now that I have learned the kind of life you are giving your wife, I am glad that things have ended this way. Now she will grow to be an embittered old maid, but that is better than being your wife.”

“I am not sure of that.”

“Your opinion is immaterial to me, as is everything that concerns you. I have been lenient enough with you. Not because I did not know you for what you are, but because of my daughter. She has been a good daughter and I love her much, and I owe you also the most painful moment in my long life, when I had to confess to her who you were. You have been a fool and I am finished with you.”

“I have done what I like and I don’t think that is being a fool.”

“You might have liked this better and that is what you don’t know, and now you will live in the uncertainty of thinking that perhaps you might have been happier.”

“Uncertainties have never bothered me.”

“Because you have never been down, way down. But you are going to be very soon and then you will know the proportions which a doubt can assume. Your mother was also a fool. If she had listened to me, everything would have worked out for the best, but she also had the superstition about brothers. She was sentimental and grew maternal with you.”

“If she had not been so, things might not have worked out so easily for you.”

“Perhaps, I don’t know. But Serrano, your. father, was different. He was a clever fool and I think he is the only man who has ever understood me and one of the few who understood life. However, they are both dead and these vagaries concerning the past lead nowhere.”

“That is right. I am glad to see that your logical faculties have not abandoned you yet. Let us get down to the present. I came to see you because. ”

“You don’t have to tell me. I know why you came and let me tell you that there is no hope. I am finished with you. Don’t even count on my death. I think I am being fair to you by letting you know in time that your name has been erased from my will.”

Paco threw his cigarette down and stamped his foot on it.

“Mind the rug, my boy.”

“But this is an abuse! I am as much your son as she is your daughter. Simply because of a benediction, a meaningless sign in the air. ”

“Not so meaningless as you think. ”

“Yes, as meaningless as the scraps of paper which make an innocent child legitimate or illegitimate. I am your blood as much as she is. All the rest is nothing but a superstition.”

“Now you want to discard a superstition and a little while ago you were considering another superstition as something insurmountable. How you change!”

“That is different. This is merely social. The other is biological.”

“Big words. But you know very well that people respect the social much more than the biological, at least officially. But we are not going to discuss that now. You have been disinherited and that is all that concerns you.”

“Wait a moment. Don’t think that you can discard me as easily as that. I have papers which may support my claims, or at least spoil your good memory after your death and create a painful situation for your daughter.”

“You may have papers, but I have influence.”

“I have influence also, and besides, remember that you will be dead and stiff, and a scandal is a scandal.”

The Count had stood up in rage and threw the blanket aside: “You will not show those papers. You will not stoop so low. You will not acknowledge publicly that you are a bastard and that your mother was. ”

“Yes.” Paco’s teeth had appeared: “I will acknowledge what I please.” He was calm again. “After all, that is also another superstition. It seems that today we are doing away with many superstitions.”

The Count was drawing his breath in short gasps. He extended his arm and pointed to the door: “Get out! Get out of this house.”

“I am waiting to see Laura.”

“You need not wait for her. She will not come down after what she knows.”

“Yes. She has strength of character and she will come down.”

“Don’t think that she will intercede in your favor. Nothing will change my decision. And she will not try to change it. She is also finished with you.”

“She will not fail me.”

“You will not see her.”

And then the door opened and Laura stood there. She was of medium height, very dark, with black curly hair and large green eyes like those of a cat. Those who believe psychological qualities break through the skin like an eruption would have looked in vain for strength of character in her.

“Hola, Paco,” and then she looked at her father and inquired with composure, “What is the matter?”

“Nothing, my darling. Nothing. This man has come to upset me as usual.”

Paco had approached Laura with an afflicted air. He held her hand and declaimed theatrically: “Sister — yes, sister! At last I can call you that and it is the saddest moment in my life.”

The Count had dropped back into his chair and was looking at him with contempt, shaking his head: “Hypocrite, hypocrite!”

“Don’t listen to him, sister. He is furious with me and I don’t know why. I am innocent. I could not help it if I was his child.”

“Paco!”

“Yes, sister. That truth has embittered my life.” He was acting his part splendidly. “I could never be proud of my mother like other boys. No, I only knew shame from the very beginning.”

Laura was looking down. The Count had covered his ears in desperation. Paco went on:

“But that is not the worst, Laura. I knew of your love for me, I knew it all the time, and all I can say is that it was not as deep, not as intense as the one I felt for you. But I had to seal my lips. I knew the truth and I could not reciprocate it. In despair I married. ” He broke down effectively.

Laura had stepped to the window and her back could be seen shaking. The Count stood up again: “Liar — dirty liar. I never thought a man could be so low.”

Paco smiled at him politely, bowed, and then became serious again because Laura had turned about.

“Father.!” She extended her arms. Paco walked over to her and held her hand.