only a single modern school, at all comparable to the ordinary public schools of any town in England or Switzerland!  The young men of the nation were feeble, unenthusiastic, selfish and—­pious—­in contrast with fathers, who had adored the generous ideals of liberty and democracy and had stood for action, revolt!  The son was an old man at majority, his breast laden with medals, with no other intellectual stimulus than the debates of his religious fraternity, trusting his future and his thinking to the Jesuit introduced into the family by the mother, while the father smiled bitterly, realizing that he was a back-number, belonging to a different world, to a dying generation—­though to a generation which had galvanized the nation for a moment with the spirit of revolutionary protest!

Here was the Church collecting pay for its services from the faithful, and then over again from the State!  Here was the Ministry of the Interior appealing for a reduction in taxes—­a program of strict economy—­while new bishoprics were being created and ecclesiastical appropriations swelled for the benefit of the upper clergy; and with no advantage at all, meanwhile, to the proletariat of the soutane, to the poor curates who, to make a bare living, had to practice the most impious worldliness and unscrupulously exploit the house of God!  And while this was going on public works could wait, towns could go without roads, Districts without railroads, though the wildest savages of Asia and Africa had both!  Fields could continue to perish of drought while nearby rivers continued to pour their unutilized waters into the sea!

A thrill of conviction rippled through the Chamber.  The silence was absolute.  Everybody was holding his breath so as not to lose a syllable from that faint voice, which sounded like a cry from a distant tomb.  It was as though Truth in person were passing through those murky precincts; and when the orator ended with an invocation to the future, in which social absurdities and injustice should no longer exist, the silence became deeper still, as if a glacial blast of death were blowing upon those brains that had thought themselves deliberating in the best of all possible worlds.

It was now time for the reply.  Rafael arose, pale, pulling at his cuffs, waiting a few minutes for the excitement in the Chamber to subside.  The audience had relaxed and was whispering and stirring about, after the sustained attention compelled by the concise style and the barely audible voice of the old man.

If Rafael was depending on the sympathy of an audience to encourage him, things looked promising indeed!  The hall began to empty.  Why not?  Who is interested in a committee’s reply to the Opposition?  Besides, Brull had a bundle of documents on hand.  A long-winded affair!  Let’s escape!  Deputies filed by in line across the semi-circle in front of him; while above, in the galleries, the desertion was general.  The caramel-chewers, noting that