THE QUEST ***

Produced by Eric Eldred, Cam, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE QUEST

BY PÍO BAROJA

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH By ISAAC GOLDBERG

CONTENTS

PART ONE

I Preamble--Somewhat Immoral Notions of a Boarding-House Keeper--A Balcony is Heard Closing--A Cricket Chirps

II Doña Casiana's House--A Morning Ceremony--Conspiracy--Wherein is Discussed The Nutritive Value of Bones--Petra and Her Family--Manuel; his Arrival in Madrid

III First Impressions of Madrid--The Boarders--Idyll--Sweet and Delightful Lessons

IV Oh, Love, Love!--What's Don Telmo Doing?--Who is Don Telmo?--Wherein the Student and Don Telmo Assume Certain Novelesque Proportions

PART TWO

I "The Regeneration of Footgear" and "The Lion of the Bootmaker's Art"--The First Sunday--An Escapade--_El Bizco_ and his Gang

II The "Big Yard" or Uncle Rilo's House--Local Enmities

III Roberto Hastings at the Shoemaker's--The Procession of Beggars--Court of Miracles

IV Life in the Cobbler's Shop--Manuel's Friends

V La Blasa's Tavern

VI Roberto in Quest of a Woman--_El Tabuenca_ and his Inventions--Don Alonso or the Snake-Man

VII The _Kermesse_ on Pasión Street--"The Dude"--A Café Chantant

VIII Leandro's Irresolution--In La Blasa's Tavern--The Man with the Three Cards--The Duel with _Valencia_

IX An Unlikely Tale--Manuel's Sisters--Life's Baffling Problems

PART THREE

I Uncle Patas' Domestic Drama--The Bakery--Karl the Baker--The Society of the Three

II One of the Many Disagreeable Ways of Dying in Madrid--The Orphan--_El Cojo_ and his Cave--Night in the Observatory

III Meeting with Roberto--Roberto Narrates the Origin of a Fantastic Fortune

IV Dolores the Scandalous--_Pastiri's_ Tricks--Tender Savagery--A Modest Out-of-the-way Robbery

V Gutter Vestals--The Troglodites

VI Señor Custodio and his Establishment--The Free Life

VII Señor Custodio's Ideas--_La Justa, el Carnicerín_ and _El Conejo_

VIII The Square--A Wedding in La Bombilla--The Asphalt Caldrons

PART ONE

CHAPTER I

Preamble--Somewhat Immoral Notions of a Boarding-House Keeper--A Balcony Is Heard Closing--A Cricket Chirps.

The clock in the corridor had just struck twelve, in a leisurely, rhythmic, decorous manner. It was the habit of that tall old narrow-cased clock to accelerate or retard, after its own sweet taste and whim, the uniform and monotonous series of hours that encircle our life until it wraps it and leaves it, like an infant in its crib, in the obscure bosom of time.

Soon after this friendly indication of the old clock, uttered in a solemn, peaceful voice becoming an aged person, the hour of eleven rang out in a shrill, grotesque fashion, with juvenile impertinence, from a petulant little clock of the vicinity, and a few minutes later, to add to the confusion and the chronometric disorder, the bell of a neighbouring church gave a single long, sonorous stroke that quivered for several seconds in the silent atmosphere.

Which of the three clocks was correct? Which of those three devi...

Show full text: 396,030 characters