overdue at the meeting, said “Look at those black pigs drink.”
“That’s no way to speak,” said the second waiter. “They are decent clients. They do not drink too much.”
“For me it is a good way to speak,” said the tall one. “There are the two curses of Spain, the bulls and the priests.”
“Certainly not the individual bull and the individual priest,” said the second waiter.
“Yes,” said the tall waiter. “Only through the individual can you attack the class. It is necessary to kill the individual bull and the individual priest. All of them. Then there are no more.”
“Save it for the meeting,” said the other waiter.
“Look at the barbarity of Madrid,” said the tall waiter. “It is now half-past eleven o’clock and these are still guzzling.”
“They only started to eat at ten,” said the other waiter. “As you know there are many dishes. That wine is cheap and these have paid for it. It is not a strong wine.”
“How can there be solidarity of workers with fools like you?” asked the tall waiter.
“Look,” said the second waiter who was a man of fifty. “I have worked all my life. In all that remains of my life I must work. I have no complaints against work. To work is normal.”
“Yes, but the lack of work kills.”
“I have always worked,” said the older waiter. “Go on to the meeting. There is no necessity to stay.”
“You are a good comrade,” said the tall waiter. “But you lack all ideology.”
“Mejor si me falta eso que el otro,” said the older waiter (meaning it is better to lack that than work). “Go on to the mitin.”
Paco had said nothing. He did not yet understand politics but it always gave him a thrill to hear the tall waiter speak of the necessity for killing the priests and the Guardia Civil. The tall waiter represented to him revolution and revolution also was romantic. He himself would like to be a good Catholic, a revolutionary,
