"Yes, after the blow, let's sing and give thanks. _Super flumina
Babylonis sedimus_!"

"Yes, a banquet like that of the convicts," said Tadeo.

"A banquet at which we all wear mourning and deliver funeral orations,"
added Sandoval.

"A serenade with the Marseillaise and funeral marches," proposed
Isagani.

"No, gentlemen," observed Pecson with his clownish grin, "to celebrate
the event there's nothing like a banquet in a _pansitería_, served
by the Chinamen without camisas. I insist, without camisas!"

The sarcasm and grotesqueness of this idea won it ready acceptance,
Sandoval being the first to applaud it, for he had long wished to see
the interior of one of those establishments which at night appeared
to be so merry and cheerful.

Just as the orchestra struck up for the second act, the young men
arose and left the theater, to the scandal of the whole house.





CHAPTER XXIII