Juanita la Larga: a Novel

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 A bsorbed as he was in his constant and various tasks, not only had Don Paco not thought about marrying a second time, but he had never had any love affairs, or at least if he had had some, they had been conducted with such marvelous circumspection that nobody in Villalegre had learned of them, which is unlikely in the extreme, because in that town there was hardly a single person, and especially if it was one of as much importance and standing as Don Paco, who could do or say anything that was not known. Even thoughts were guessed there, and then circulated and commented on, unless the “thinker” thought on the sly, keeping things very much to himself. Hence we should believe that Don Paco had not had any love affairs, unless they were very short-lived and frivolous, and that, in his long widowhood, he had not thought about such things. Nevertheless, he possessed a remarkable aptitude and acumen for recognizing and admiring feminine pulchritude, and for months now, almost without noticing it and very involuntarily, as he took part in the tertulia with the town clerk and the druggist and other men while seated on the stone benches near the fountain, his eyes were fixed with lingering enjoyment on Juanita la Larga, who was still in the habit of coming to fill her jug and be there to chat with the other girls until it was her turn. Undoubtedly Don Paco had begun to feel a strong attraction to Juanita, one that was difficult to hold in check, but some time went by without his showing an outward sign that he felt it, striving perhaps to hide it from himself for reasons that he suppressed. 29 30 Juanita la Larga Based on his own modesty, which caused him to form a low opinion of his person, he surmised that with his fifty-three years, thirty-six more than Juanita, he could no longer win the girl’s love, and that she would either disdain his affection or would be moved to reciprocate only out of self-interest. He then considered that Juanita, although leading a life of apparent freedom, was watched over by her mother, and that since mother and daughter lived with a certain comfort, it could not be presumed that, if he had sinful intentions, they would yield, but at all events they would yield in facie ecclesiae,1 and with the priest leading the way. The idea of marriage terrified Don Paco, and by no manner of means because he found the married state repugnant, but because his daughter, Señora Doña Inés, inspired him with a deep affection, affection mixed with terror, and because she was as imperious as she was ill-humored, and undoubtedly would turn into a fury from Avernus2 if her father presented her with a stepmother, especially one from such an inferior social position, and if the seven grandchildren that she had given him, and those that might still come were she to persist in her productive ways, lost hope of inheriting the vineyard, the olive grove, and the house, and of enjoying, in his lifetime, not a little of what he could acquire with his various abilities. Don Paco shuddered at the thought of incurring his daughter’s displeasure, and although he shuddered mainly on account of the displeasure itself, he also feared its dire consequences. Well did he understand that there was no one person or number of councils in the town that could successfully replace him in his various posts, but the world was not uninhabited or short of rural men of the state who could be found and brought in from outside the town to replace him. And well did he understand that his daughter 1. Latin, in the presence [blessing] of the church. 2. A small crater lake between Cuma and Puteoli in southern Italy, considered in ancient times as an entrance to hell because of the malodorous and fetid sulphuric vapors that arose from it and supposedly killed birds flying overhead. Juanita la Larga 31 was, to all intents and purposes, omnipotent, because she had both powers, temporal and spiritual, under her thumb. Father Anselmo considered her a saint, and a Doctor of the Church, and whatever she said was for him, without anyone being able to prevent it, a legitimate corollary of the gospels and...