"Somewhat!" cried the alférez. "He must be spent, as they say here, malunqueado. What a sermon!"
"Superb! Herculean!" was the opinion of the notary.
"Magnificent! Profound!" said a newspaper correspondent.
In the other booth the children were more noisy than little Filipinos are wont to be, for at table or before strangers they are usually rather too timid than too bold. If one of them did not eat with propriety, his neighbor corrected him. To one a certain article was a spoon; to others a fork or a knife; and as nobody settled their questions, they were in continual uproar.
Their fathers and mothers, simple peasants, looked in ravishment to see their children eating on a white cloth, and doing it almost as well as the curate or the alcalde. It was better to them than a banquet.
"Yes," said a young peasant woman to an old man grinding his buyo, "whatever my husband says, my Andoy shall be a priest. It is true, we are poor; but Father Mateo says Pope Sixtu was once a keeper of carabaos at Batanzas! Look at my Andoy; hasn't he a face like St. Vincent?" and the good mother's mouth watered at the sight of her son with his fork in both hands!
"God help us!" said the old man, munching his sapa. "If Andoy gets to be pope, we will go to Rome! I can walk yet! Ho! Ho!"
"It's decided, neighbor," he said, "my son is to be a doctor."
"A doctor! Don't speak of it!" replied Petra. "There's nothing like being a curate! He has only to make two or three turns and say 'déminos pabiscum' and he gets his money."
"Work! Think of the trouble we take to find out the affairs of our neighbors! The curate has only to sit down, and they tell him everything!"
"And preaching? Don't you call that work?"
"Preaching? Where is your head? To scold half a day from the pulpit without any one's daring to reply and be paid for it into the bargain! Look, look at Father Dámaso! See how fat he gets with his shouting and pounding!"
In truth, Father Dámaso was that moment passing the children's booth in the gait peculiar to men of his size. As he entered the other booth, he was half smiling, but so maliciously that at sight of it Ibarra, who was talking, lost the thread of his speech.
The guests were astonished to see the father, but every one except Ibarra received him with signs of pleasure. They were at the dessert, and the champagne was sparkling in the cups.