Читать книгу Weeds онлайн

46 страница из 71

This, too, was a circular in Don Bonifacio’s style. It read:

LA BENEFACTORA

Medico-Pharmaceutical Agency

Don Pelayo Huesca, Director

No one makes good his promises so well as he. The Administrative Council of La Benefactora is composed of the wealthiest bankers of Madrid. La Benefactora runs an account with the Bank of Spain. There is no admission fee to La Benefactora.

It proffers services as lawyer, relator, procurator, physician, apothecary; it provides aid for births, dietary regimen, burials, lactation, and so forth.

Monthly fee: one, two, two-and-a-half, three, four and five pesetas.

(Actions speak louder than words)

General Director: Pelayo Huesca, Misericordia, 6.

“Eh?” cried Mingote when Manuel had finished reading. “What do you think of that? Here he is making his living in La Europa, and then he goes and plagiarizes me and runs La Benefactora. That man is the same way in everything. As treacherous as the waves. But ah, Señor Don Pelayo, I’ll get even with you yet. If you’re a perfidious bat, I’ll nail you to my door; if you’re a miserable tortoise, I’ll smash your shell for you. Do you see, my son? What can you expect of a country where they don’t respect intellectual property, which is not only the most sacred, but the only legitimate form of all property?”