generously in not claiming his trunk and clothes, from which she
might have realized the few cents that he still owed her.
He looked for another lodging, but was unable to rent a piano, which
was a sore trial to him; evidently he could not finish his Mass. He
knew a shopkeeper who owned a piano and who permitted him to make
use of it. But Juan soon noticed that his visits grew more and more
inopportune, so he left off going. Shortly, too, he was turned out
of his new lodgings, only this time they kept his trunk. Then came
a period of misery and anguish,--of that misery of which it is hard
to conceive. We know that life has few joys for the homeless and
the poor, but if in addition they be blind and alone, surely they
have found the limit of human suffering. Juan was tossed about from
lodging to lodging, lying in bed while his only shirt was being
washed, wandering through the streets of Madrid with torn shoes, his
trousers worn to a fringe about his feet, his hair long, and his
beard unshaven. Some compassionate fellow-lodger obtained a position
for him in a café, from which, however, he was soon turned out, for
its frequenters did not relish his music. He never played popular
dances or peteneras, no fandangos, not even an occasional polka.
His fingers glided over the keys in dreamy ecstasies of Beethoven
and Chopin, and the audience found some difficulty in keeping time
with their spoons. So out he went again through the byways of the
capital. Every now and then some charitable soul, accidentally
brought in contact with his misery, assisted him indirectly, for Juan
shuddered at the thought of begging. He took his meals in some tavern
or other in the lowest quarter of Madrid, ate just enough to keep
from starving, and for two cents he was allowed to sleep in a hovel
between beggars and evil-doers. Once they stole his trousers while he
was asleep, and left him a pair of cotton ones in their stead. This
was in November.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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