Curiosity only disturbed the calm of the Claverias for about a week.  Little by little the women ceased to stand about the Luna’s door to watch Sagrario bending over her machine, and the girl quietly continued her sad and hard-working life.  Gabriel seldom left the “habitacion.”  He spent whole days by the young woman’s side, endeavouring by his presence to atone for the hostile aloofness of her father.  It pained him that she should find herself so despised and solitary in her own house.  Every now and then the Aunt Tomasa came to see them, enlivening them with the optimism of her happy old age.  She was pleased with her niece’s conduct; to work hard so as not to be a drag on her obstinate old father, and to help towards the maintenance of the house, was clearly what was required; but all the same there was no reason she should kill herself with work—­calm and good humour, this bad time would lead to a better; she was there to get things straight with that fiend-possessed Gabriel, and she made the gloomy “habitacion” ring with her healthy laugh and lively words.

At other times Gabriel’s friends would invade the house, abandoning the assemblies at the shoemaker’s.  They could not bear Luna’s absence, they wanted to hear him, to consult him, and even the shoemaker when his work was not urgent would leave his bench and, smelling of paste, with his apron tucked into his belt and his head rolled up in striped handkerchiefs, would come and sit by Sagrario’s machine.

The young woman fixed her sad eyes with admiration on her uncle.  She had always from her childhood heard her parents speak with respect of that extraordinary relative who was travelling in foreign countries; she vaguely remembered him as a shadow crossing her love dream when he had spent a few days in the Cathedral before establishing himself in Barcelona, astonishing them all by the accounts of his travels and his foreign customs.  Now she returned to find him aged, as sickly as herself, but influencing all who surrounded him by the mysterious power of his words, that were like heavenly music to those poor narrow-minded souls.

In the midst of her sadness Sagrario had no other pleasure but to listen to her uncle; she felt the same as did those simple men who left their work to seek Luna in their anxiety to hear fresh things from his lips.  Gabriel was the modern world that for so many years had rolled on far from the Cathedral, never touching it, but which had at last entered in to stir and awaken a handful of men who were still living in the sixteenth century.

The appearance of Sagrario had brought about a change in Luna’s life; he became more communicative, and he lost a great deal of the reserve he had imposed upon himself when he took refuge in the stony lap of the church.  He no longer forced himself to keep silence and to hide his thoughts; the presence of a woman seemed to enliven him and wake once more his propagandist fervour.  His companions saw a new Gabriel—­more loquacious and more disposed to communicate to them the “new things,” that were already upheaving the traditional course of their thoughts, and that even now had on many nights disturbed their sleep.