Come Back Tomorrow

"Vuelva usted mañana" is a short newspaper article, told here whole, in one episode, slightly condensed. The English is my own, made from the Spanish.

A great person he must have been, whoever first called idleness a deadly sin. We shall not go, in one of our ill-humoured articles, into the history of sins — though it would be an amusing history; we shall only say that idleness has shut the gates of heaven on more than one Christian.

I was making these reflections the other day, I don't know why, when a foreigner presented himself at my house, with letters of recommendation for my person.

Foreigners have usually one of two exaggerated ideas about Spain. Either they believe the Spaniards are still the generous, noble, open-handed people of two centuries ago; or they believe we are still a kind of wandering tribe of Arabs. Those of the first kind imagine that our national character is as intact as our ruins; those of the second tremble on our roads at every step, and ask whether the guards who are there to protect them have come to rob them.

The truth is that Spain is not a country to be understood at first sight. It is like those conjuring tricks which seem marvellous and inexplicable until the secret is told — and then the spectator is ashamed of his own lack of penetration. Not seeing any obvious cause, men suppose there must be deep and hidden ones; human pride would rather declare a thing incomprehensible than confess its own dullness. And since many Spaniards themselves do not understand what moves their country, one can hardly ask foreigners to grasp it in a day.

My foreigner had come to Spain on account of certain family affairs, certain future claims, and certain great projects, conceived in Paris, of investing his capital here in some enterprise of industry or trade. Accustomed to the quickness of our neighbours, he assured me seriously that he meant to stay only a very short time, unless he soon found a safe investment for his money.

He seemed to me to deserve some consideration. I struck up a friendship with him, and, out of pity, I urged him to go home as soon as he could, unless he had some more serious purpose than seeing the sights. He was astonished, and asked me to explain myself.

"Look, Monsieur Sans-délai," I said to him — that was his name — "you have come determined to spend fifteen days here, and to settle all your affairs in them."

"Certainly," he said. "Fifteen days, and that is a great deal. Tomorrow morning we find a genealogist for my family affairs; by evening he has searched his books, and I know who my ancestors were. The day after tomorrow I present my claims, founded on the data he has given me, duly legalised; and on the third day the case is judged, and I am master of what is mine. On the fourth day I shall have presented my proposals for investing my capital; they will be accepted or rejected at once. So that's five days. On the sixth, seventh and eighth I see what there is to see in Madrid; on the ninth I rest; on the tenth I take my seat in the coach, if I don't care to stay longer, and go back home. And I still have five days left over out of the fifteen."

Here I made an effort to swallow the laughter that was rising in my throat; and though my good manners held it back, I could not prevent a faint smile — of wonder, and of pity — from slipping out on my lips at his plans.

"Allow me, Monsieur Sans-délai," I said, half laughing, "allow me to invite you to dinner on the day when you will have been in Madrid fifteen months."

"How?"

"In fifteen months you will still be here."

"You are joking?"

"Not at all."

"Shan't I be able to leave when I wish? Really, the idea is charming!"

"Understand that you are not in your own active, hard-working country."

"Oh! The Spaniards who have travelled abroad have all got into the habit of speaking ill of their own country, to make themselves seem superior to their countrymen."

"I assure you that in the fifteen days you count on, you will not even have managed to speak to a single one of the persons whose help you need."

"Hyperboles! I shall communicate my activity to all of them."

"All of them will communicate their inertia to you."

I saw that he would not be persuaded except by experience, and I said nothing more for the moment, sure that the facts would soon speak for me.

The next morning we set out together to look for a genealogist — which could only be done by going from friend to friend, and from acquaintance to acquaintance. We found him at last. The good old man, flustered at seeing us in such a hurry, told us frankly that he needed a little time; we pressed him, and he told us, without fuss, that we should come back in a few days. I smiled, and we went away. Three days passed; we went back.