Page Content (OCR)
Spanish very badly although understandably, addressed my wife and said something to the effect that she thanked her from the heart for the hospitality of the "Country of Spain". We all went into the dining room after the two men who had come earlier, took leave. In w whole life I have never felt more at ease, for when Miss YU 1, my wife and I sat down, the larger girl, whose name was something like UUOO 120 or so, and DEI 98, who is the man who has most impressed me in my life with his infinite intelligence, remained standing, which was very unnatural, and that I criticize even if it was out of respect for their superior, because they ought to have realized that my wife and I felt very strained. For example, since nothing escapes me, I noticed that every time she asked for something, they lowered their eyes when answering as if they did not dare to look at her. She is little more than a youngster; she can't be over nineteen so far as we know, but she looks sixteen. The other girl looked some twenty-three or twenty-five. Of course what most surprised my wife was that she, the youngest of all those here, was the one in command, so she blurted it out. The three of them laughed and the Superior said that we must not think that on UMMO the young girls are in command, that this depends on many factors. We talked a great deal about Spanish customs. The only thing that disgusted them was the bulls. Nothing was said about the planet UMMO. She asked a lot of questions about the Spanish government; she knew about many things, the Referendum and even the Cortes. I told her that we did not want to mix in politics since the reds killed my father in the war. I was astounded by what she knew. My wife listened to her timidly without daring to say anything. She realized this and very gently began to talk about Spanish cooking, then remarked that she was saddened to learn that Spanish women read little and are not given an intellectual education as are the men, and she was sure their feminity is never lost with greater education. Then she looked at the other girl ‘with a smile and the latter opened the traveling bag and handed my wife a marvelous home encyclopedia with color plates in Spanish. We had supper there; my wife was amazed because the two women forced her to let them help her. What surprised us more is that they ate like us, but refused to take wine. They had already told us they wanted a sample meal, and my wife had prepared beforehand baked potatoes, boiled eggs, and for them fruit (oranges and bananas). Another absurd thing is that throughout the meal the Superior insisted so much on helping my wife that when it was over, she (the Superior) washed the pots while her secretary remained standing without helping, as my wife told me afterwards. Her timidity had left her by then and 49