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“What is Estrellado Fernández Anis? It is salvation, it is life, it is energy, it is power.”

Manuel raised his eyes in astonishment, and beheld the agent’s distracted gaze fixed upon the ceiling; he was gesticulating wildly, as if threatening some one with his right hand which was armed with the cane, while his secretary scribbled rapidly over the sheet.

“It is a fact, universally recognized by Science,” continued Mingote in his melodramatic tones, “that neurasthenia, asthenia, impotency, hysteria and many other disorders of the nervous system.... What other ailments does it cure?” Mingote paused to ask, in his natural voice.

“Rickets, scrofula, chorea....”

“ ... That rickets, scrofula, chorea and many other disorders of the nervous system....”

“Pardon,” interrupted the amanuensis. “I believe that rickets is not a disorder of the nervous system.”

“Very well. Scratch it out. Let’s see; we were at the nervous system, weren’t we?”

“Yes, sir.”

“ ... And other disorders of the nervous system come solely and exclusively from atony,—exhaustion of the nerve-cells. Well, then,—” and Mingote increased the volume of his voice with a new fervour,—“Estrellado Fernández Anis corrects this atony; Estrellado Fernández Anis, exciting the secretion of the gastric juices, routs these ailments which age and destroy mankind.”