Prev | Current Page 384 | Next

?©, 1861-1896

"The Social Cancer"

"
Ibarra smiled slightly and replied by taking some documents from his
pocketbook. "My dead father used to consult you in some things and
I recall that he had only to congratulate himself on following your
advice. I have on hand a little enterprise, the success of which
I must assure." Here he explained briefly his plan for the school,
which he had offered to his fiancee, spreading out in view of the
astonished Sage some plans which had been prepared in Manila.
"I would like to have you advise me as to what persons in the
town I must first win over in order to assure the success of the
undertaking. You know the inhabitants well, while I have just arrived
and am almost a stranger in my own country."
Old Tasio examined the plans before him with tear-dimmed eyes. "What
you are going to do has been my dream, the dream of a poor lunatic!" he
exclaimed with emotion. "And now the first thing that I advise you
to do is never to come to consult with me."
The youth gazed at him in surprise.
"Because the sensible people," he continued with bitter irony, "would
take you for a madman also.


Pages:
372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396