I had a sensation of plotting and intriguing around me, all the time.

I was feeling morally bruised, sore all over, when, one day, Don Rafael de Villarel sent in his card.

A grandee.

I didn't know him, but, as you are aware, there was hardly a personality of mark or position that hasn't been talked about in the Pavilion before me.

Of him I had only heard that he was a very austere and pious person, always at Mass, and that sort of thing.