Note 21 — Chapter II · SCHOOL-DAYS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

It must have been efficacious, for when he returned to school he flung himself with something like passion into the race for these laurels, and it was said of him that no student there had ever equaled his performance. The fathers began to look with wondering pride upon this premier medal winner. For all that, he was a boy still and no mere Johnny Dighard; he had fights and he read novels and he even found time for social amenities, so called. At these latter he seems not to have won distinction, though the records are meager; but at least it may be said for him that he managed to fall in love.21 One of the first works of fiction he read was Dumas’s “Count of Monte Christo” in Spanish. He says that it gave him “delight,” but it did more than that for him. The wrongs and sufferings of Edmond Dantes bore in upon him the misfortunes of his own people and sharply reminded him of his mother and the two terrible years she had spent in Santa Cruz jail. In Calamba and all about him festered a social system infinitely worse than any Dumas had imagined.