Gabriel felt pity for the moral dependency in which the poor young man lived, and he would often leave his niece, going out into the cloister to join them.  His other friends were not long in discovering him; first of all the bell-ringer, then the organ-blower, and presently the verger, the Perrero, and the shoemaker would join the group, of which Silver Stick was the nucleus.  Don Antolin was delighted to see himself surrounded by so many people, never imagining that Gabriel was the attraction, thinking always it was his authority that inspired fear and respect.

Recognising equality with no one but Luna, to him only he addressed his conversation, as though the others had no other duty but to listen to him in silence; if anyone spoke to him he pretended not to hear, but continued addressing Gabriel.  Mariquita, huddled up in a shawl, followed them with her eyes from the door, sharing her uncle’s pride in seeing himself surrounded by such a group, who accompanied him in his stroll up and down the cloister; the proximity of so many men seemed to turn her head.

“Uncle!  Don Gabriel!” she called in a coaxing voice.  “Won’t you come in; you will be more comfortable inside the house, because, even though it is sunny, it is very cold.”

But the uncle paid no attention to her words, and continued his walk on the side of the cloister bathed by the sun, talking pompously on his favourite theme, the present poverty of the Cathedral and its greatness In former times.

“These cloisters in which we are,” he said; “do you believe that they were built to serve as a refuge to the humble secular people who now live in them?  No, senor, although the Church was generous, she would not have built these ‘habitaciones,’ with their inner courtyards and their colonnades for Wooden Staffs and vergers, etc.  This cloister, which was to have been as large and beautiful as the one below, was begun by the great Cardinal Cisneros” (Don Antolin raised his hand to his cap) “so that the canons should live in them subject to conventual regulations; but the canons in those days were very rich, and, being great lords, would not consent to live shut up here; they all protested, and the cardinal, who was very quick-tempered, wished to keep them in leading strings, but one of them started to Rome with their complaints, sent by his comrades.  Cisneros, being governor of the kingdom, placed guards at all the ports, and the emissary was arrested as he was going to embark at Valencia.  The end of it all was that after a long suit the gentlemen of the Chapter came off victorious, and lived out of the Primacy, and the Claverias remained unfinished with this low roof and this balustrade, both provisional.  But even as it is kings have lived in this cloister; that great monarch, Philip II., spent several days here.  What glorious times! when the kings, who had palaces at their command, preferred living in these rooms, so as to be inside the Cathedral and nearer to God.  Such kings, such people.  For this reason Spain was greater then than ever.  We were masters of the world.  We had power and money, and we lived happily on earth in the certainty of reaching heaven after death.”