After that no concealment was possible. The fat was in the fire and the clubs along the Sierpes buzzed with the scandal. Waiters were kept busy bringing trays of little glasses of Manzanilla to the members from the neighbouring wine-shops. They gossiped and laughed over the scandal, and Pilar's rejected suitors were the recipients of many congratulations. What an escape! The duchess was in despair. She could think of nothing better to do than go to the Archbishop, her trusted friend and former confessor, and beg him himself to reason with the infatuated girl. Pilar was summoned to the episcopal palace, and the good old man, used to intervening in family quarrels, did his utmost to show her the folly of her course. But she would not be persuaded. Nothing that anyone could say would induce her to forsake the man she loved. The duchess, waiting in an adjoining room, was sent for and made a final appeal to her daughter. In vain. Pilar returned to her humble lodging and the duchess in tears was left alone with the Archbishop. The Archbishop was no less astute than he was pious, and when he saw that the distracted woman was in a fit state to listen to him, advised her as a last resource to go to the Countess de Marbella. She was the cleverest woman in Seville and it might be that she could do something.
At first the duchess indignantly refused. She would never suffer the humiliation of appealing to her greatest enemy. Sooner might the ancient house of Dos Palos fall in ruin. The Archbishop was accustomed to dealing with tiresome women. He set himself with gentle cunning to induce her to change her mind and presently she consented to throw herself on the Frenchwoman's mercy. With rage in her heart she sent a message asking if she might see her, and that afternoon was ushered into her drawing-room. The countess of course had been one of the first to hear the story, but she listened to the unhappy mother as though she had not known a thing about it. She relished the situation enormously. It was the crowning triumph to have the vindictive duchess on her knees before her. But she was at heart a good-natured woman and she had a sense of humour.
'It's a most unfortunate situation,' she said. 'And I'm sorry that one of my servants should be the occasion of it. But I don't exactly see what I can do.'
The duchess would have liked to slap her painted face and her voice trembled a little with the effort she made to control her anger.
'It is not for my own sake I'm asking you to help. It's for Pilar's. I know, we all know, that you are the cleverest woman in the city. It seemed to me, it seemed to the Archbishop, that if there was a way out, your quick wit would find it.'
The countess knew she was being grossly flattered. She did not mind. She liked it.
'You must let me think.'
'Of course, if he'd been a gentleman I could have sent for my son and he would have killed him, but the Duke of Dos Palos cannot fight a duel with the Countess de Marbella's coachman.'
'Perhaps not.'
'In the old days it would have been so simple. I should merely have hired a couple of ruffians and had the brute's throat cut one night in the street. But with all these laws they have nowadays decent people have no way of protecting themselves from insult.'
'I should deplore any method of settling the difficulty that deprived me of the services of an excellent coachman,' murmured the countess.
'But if he married my daughter he cannot continue to be your coachman,' cried the duchess indignantly.
'Are you going to give Pilar an income for them to live on?'
'Me? Not a peseta. I told Pilar at once that she should get nothing from me. They can starve for all I care.'
'Well, I should think rather than do that he will prefer to stay on as my coachman. There are very nice rooms over my stables.'
The duchess went pale. The duchess went red.
'Forget all that has passed between us. Let us be friends. You can't expose me to such a humiliation. If I've ever done things to affront you I ask you on my knees to forgive me.'
The duchess cried.
'Dry your eyes, Duchess,' the Frenchwoman said at last. 'I will do what I can.'
'Is there anything you can do?'
'Perhaps. Is it true that Pilar has and will have no money of her own?'
'Not a penny if she marries without my consent.'
The countess gave her one of her brightest smiles.
'There is a common impression that southern people are romantic and northern people matter-of-fact. The reverse is true. It is the northerners who are incurably romantic. I have lived long enough among you Spaniards to know that you are nothing if not practical.'
The duchess was too broken to resent openly these unpleasant remarks, but, oh, how she hated the woman! The Countess de Marbella rose to her feet.
'You shall hear from me in the course of the day.'
She firmly dismissed her visitor.
The carriage was ordered for five o'clock and at ten minutes to, the countess, dressed for her drive, sent for Jose. When he came into the drawing-room, wearing his pale grey livery with such an air, she could not deny that he was very good to look upon. If he had not been her own coachman-well, it was not the moment for ideas of that sort. He stood before her, holding himself easily, but with a gallant swagger. There was nothing servile in his bearing.
'A Greek god,' the countess murmured to herself. 'It is only Andalusia that can produce such types.' And then aloud: 'I hear that you are going to marry the daughter of the Duchess of Dos Palos.'
'If the countess does not object.'
She shrugged her shoulders.
'Whoever you marry is a matter of complete indifference to me. You know of course that Dona Pilar will have no fortune.'
'Yes, madam. I have a good place and I can keep my wife. I love her.'
'I can't blame you for that. She is a beautiful girl. But I think it only right to tell you that I have a rooted objection to married coachmen. On your wedding-day you leave my service. That is all I had to say to you. You can go.'
She began to look at the daily paper that had just arrived from Paris, but Jose, as she expected, did not stir. He stared down at the floor. Presently the countess looked up.
'What are you waiting for?'
'I never knew madam would send me away,' he answered in a troubled tone.
'I have no doubt you'll find another place.'
'Yes, but . . .'
'Well, what is it?' she asked sharply.
He sighed miserably.
'There's not a pair of mules in the whole of Spain to come up to ours. They're almost human beings. They understand every word I say to them.'
The countess gave him a smile that would have turned the head of anyone who was not madly in love already.
'I'm afraid you must choose between me and your betrothed.'
He shifted from one foot to the other. He put his hand to his pocket to get himself a cigarette, but then, remembering where he was, restrained the gesture. He glanced at the countess and that peculiar shrewd smile came over his face which those who have lived in Andalusia know so well.
'In that case, I can't hesitate. Pilar must see that this alters my position entirely. One can get a wife any day of the week, but a place like this is found only once in a lifetime. I should be a fool to throw it up for a woman.'
That was the end of the adventure. JosГ© LeГіn continued to drive the Countess de Marbella, but she noticed when they sped up and down the Delicias that henceforward as many eyes were turned on her handsome coachman as on her latest hat: and a year later Pilar married the Marques de San Esteban.