But since we moderns have become Frenchified we can't endure two _i's_ in succession, so cultured people, especially in Madrid--you've never been in Madrid ?--cultured people, as I say, have begun to change the first _i_ to _e_ in many words.

This is called modernizing yourself." The poor corporal had never been in Madrid--here was the cause of his failure to understand the riddle: what things are learned in Madrid! "So now it's proper to say--" "In the ancient style, man! This country's not yet cultured! In the ancient style, _Filipinas!_" exclaimed Gomez disdainfully.
The corporal, even if he was a bad philologist, was yet a good husband.

What he had just learned his spouse must also know, so he proceeded with her education: "Consola, what do you call your damned country ?" "What should I call it?
Just what you taught me: _Felifinas!_" "I'll throw a chair at you, you -- --! Yesterday you pronounced it even better in the modern style, but now it's proper to pronounce it like an ancient: _Feli_, I mean, _Filipinas!_" "Remember that I'm no ancient! What are you thinking about ?" "Never mind! Say _Filipinas!_" "I don't want to.

I'm no ancient baggage, scarcely thirty years old!" she replied, rolling up her sleeves and preparing herself for the fray.
"Say it, you -- --, or I'll throw this chair at you!" Consolacion saw the movement, reflected, then began to stammer with heavy breaths, "_Feli-, Fele-, File--_" Pum! Crack! The chair finished the word.

So the lesson ended in fisticuffs, scratchings, slaps.