The notary was wont to speak of him with enthusiasm, yet pitying him at the same time.
"That poor Don Carmelo!...

The leading authority of the age in civilian matters! By applying himself he might earn some money, but verses attracted him more than lawsuits." Ulysses used to enter his office with keen emotion.

Above rows of multicolored and gilded books that covered the walls, he saw some great plaster heads with towering foreheads and vacant eyes that seemed always to be contemplating an immense nothingness.
The child could repeat their names like a fragment from a choir book, from Homer to Victor Hugo.

Then his glance would seek another head equally glorious although less white, with blonde and grizzled beard, rubicund nose and bilious cheeks that in certain moments scattered bits of scale.

The sweet eyes of his godfather--yellowish eyes spotted with black dots--used to receive Ulysses with the doting affection of an aging, old bachelor who needs to invent a family.