The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER XXXIX 187
"Yes, now you can say what you like. You didn't want me to go to mass! You didn't let me attend to my
religious duties!" she answered with such sarcasm as only she knew how to use.
The alferez put on his helmet, arranged his clothing a little, and went out with heavy steps, but returned after a
few minutes without making the least noise, having taken off his shoes. The servants, accustomed to these
brawls, were usually bored, but this novelty of the shoes attracted their attention, so they winked to one
another. The alferez sat down quietly in a chair at the side of the Sublime Port and had the patience to wait for
more than half an hour.
"Have you really gone out or are you still there, old goat?" asked the voice from time to time, changing the
epithets and raising the tone. At last she began to take away the furniture piece by piece. He heard the noise
and smiled.
"Boy, has your master gone out?" cried Doña Consolacion.
At a sign from the alferez the boy answered, "Yes, señora, he's gone out."
A gleeful laugh was heard from her as she pulled back the bolt. Slowly her husband arose, the door opened a
little way--
A yell, the sound of a falling body, oaths, howls, curses, blows, hoarse voices--who can tell what took place in
the darkness of that room?
As the boy went out into the kitchen he made a significant sign to the cook, who said to him, "You'll pay for
that."
"I? In any case the whole town will! She asked me if he had gone out, not if he had come back!"