Note 20 — Chapter II · SCHOOL-DAYS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Paciano was there that first day and took him in charge. He would not allow the sensitive little artist to lodge in the Walled City or ancient part of Manila, “which seemed very gloomy to me,” says Rizal, a judgment others might echo. In another quarter of the town, twenty-five minutes away, he was lodged with an old maid, who seemed to have a superfluity of other lodgers and a scarcity of room to stow them in. “I must not speak of my sufferings,” says José, with pious resignation.20