The first morning of work was infinitely boresome to Manuel; this
protracted inactivity became unbearable. At noon a bulky old woman
entered the shop with their lunch in a basket. This was Senor
Ignacio's mother.
"And my wife?" the cobbler asked her.
"She's gone washing."
"And Salome Isn't she coming?"
"No. She got some work in a house for the whole week."
The old lady extracted from the basket a pot, dishes, napkins,
cutlery, and a huge loaf of bread; she laid a cloth upon the floor and
everybody squatted down around it. She poured the soup from the pot
into the plates, into which each one crumbled a bit of bread, and they
began to eat. Then the old woman doled out to each his portion of
boiled meat and vegetables, and, as they ate, the cobbler discoursed
briefly upon the future of Spain and the reasons for national
backwardness,--a topic that appeals to most Spaniards, who consider
themselves regenerators.
Senor Ignacio was a mild liberal, a man who swelled with enthusiasm
over these words about the national sovereignty, and who spoke openly
of the Glorious Revolution. In matters of religion he advocated
freedom of worship; his ideal would be for Spain to have an equal
number of priests of the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and every other
denomination, for thus, he asserted, each would choose the dogma that
seemed to him best.
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