“CAN you not show me,” said the Student, as they flew swiftly through the upper air over Madrid, he clinging tightly to the Devil’s skirts, “can you not show me other sights equally entertaining before we finish our journey?” “Readily,” replied Asmodeus, “for I have the power of showing you every heart and thought in Madrid, and of unroofing every house if it be my pleasure, and I am determined to repay you in whatever way you choose for the service you have done me. First, then, cast your eyes down at the very well-dressed gentleman whom you see in that open taxi-cab, enjoying as he whirls along the warm air of a night in the season. He is a wealthy man in charge of one of the great departments of State; nay, I can tell you which one, for the mines in Peru are his special department.”
“Doubtless,” said the Student, “he is at this moment considering some weighty matter in connection with his duties.”
“No,” said the Devil; “you must guess again.”
“Why, then, since you have shown me so many diverting weaknesses in men I must believe that he is plotting for the advancement of some favourite.”
[105]“Yet again you are wrong,” said the Devil. “His whole mind is occupied in watching the sums marked by the taximeter, which he constantly consults by the aid of a match; only last Wednesday, the Feast of St. Theresa, he was overcharged a matter of a quarter of a real by one of these machines, and he is determined this shall not happen again. You perceive the great house which he is now passing. It is lit up at every window, and the sounds of music are proceeding from it.”
“I not only see it,” said the Student, “but have seen this sort of sight so often during the season in Madrid that I am certain you will not find anything here to surprise me.”
“No,” said the Devil, “I was perhaps wrong in attempting to amuse you by so commonplace a spectacle as that of a moneylender entertaining very nearly all those in Madrid with whom he has had no dealings, and even some of those who are in his power; that is, if, on account of their nobility or from some other cause, it is worth his while to have them seen in his rooms. But what I would particularly point out to you is, not this kind of feast which (as you say) you have seen a thousand times, but the old man who is mumbling strange prayers over a dish of food in that common servants’ room which you may perceive to lie half above the ground and half beneath it next to the kitchen. He is the father of the wealthy gentleman who is entertaining the guests upstairs.”
[106]“It is evident,” said the Student, “that he has no liking for High Life.”
“No,” said Asmodeus, “and in this eccentricity he is supported with true filial sympathy by his son.”
“I perceive,” said the Student, “a man tossing uneasily in his sleep, and from time to time crying out as one does to a horse when it is restive, or rather as men cry to horses which they can hardly control.”
“I am well acquainted with him,” said the Devil. “He is one of my most earnest clients, but in nothing does he divert me more than in these nightmares of his wherein he cries ‘Whoa there! Steady, old girl!’ And again, ‘Now then! Now then!’ not omitting from time to time, ‘You damned brute!’ and a cuff upon his pillow.”
“To what, my dear Asmodeus, do we owe this diversion?” asked the Student wonderingly. “He seems to be a wealthy man, if we may judge by the house in which we see him and the furniture of the room in which he so painfully sleeps. And surely there is nothing upon his mind?”
“You are wrong,” said the Devil; “there is upon his mind a most weighty matter, for he considers it a necessity in his position to ride every morning along the soft road especially prepared for that exercise upon the banks of the Manzanares, where he may meet the wealth and fashion of Madrid occupied in the same pastime. But unfortunately[107] for him he is wholly devoid of the art of equitation and stands in as much terror of his mount as does a lady of her dressmaker. For one hour, therefore, of every day, he suffers such tortures that I greatly fear we shall not be able to add to them appreciably in my dominions when the proper time arrives. But let us leave these wealthy people, whose foibles are, after all, much the same, and turn to the poorer quarters which lie south of the King’s Royal Palace.”
In a few moments they had reached these and were examining a mean house not far from the Church of St. Alphonso, in a bare upper room of which a woman with a starved and anxious expression was writing, late as was the hour, at top speed.
“Poor woman!” said the Student. “I perceive that she is one of those unhappy people whom grinding poverty compels to produce ephemeral literature which is afterwards printed and sold at one real for the divertisement of the populace of Madrid. I know of no trade more pitiful, and I can assure you the sight of her industry moves me to the bottom of my heart.”
“The sight is indeed pitiful,” said the Devil, “to those at least who permit themselves the luxury of pity—a habit which I confess I have long ago abandoned. For you must know that in the company of Belphegor, Ashtaroth, and the rest even the softest-hearted of devils will grow callous. But more interesting to you perhaps than the sad necessities[108] of her trade is the matter which she is at present engaged upon.”
“What is that?” said the Student.
“Why,” said Asmodeus, “she is writing ‘Nellie’s Notes’ for a paper called The Spanish Noblewoman, and she is at this very moment setting down her opinion that there is no better way to pass a rainy afternoon than taking out and cleaning one’s Indian Bracelets, Ropes of Pearls, Diamonds, and other gems. She is good enough to add that she herself thinks it wise and a good discipline to clean her own jewellery and not leave it to a maid.”
“In the room be............