Madrid
Madrid, 14 February 1886
MR. JOSE RIZAL
MY DEAR PEPE,
This morning I received your card in which you announced to me that you are now in that city.
Also we have received from Eduardo the letter you addressed us from Strasburg. We are informed of your doings and I am especially pleased to read about what you have seen in your travel in that place.
Your letter came on time. We were ready to leave the house the following day, each one to live wherever he pleased. Therefore our triumvirate was totally dissolved, which had lately been reduced to a duomvirate. This was not due to displeasures between us but to the scandalous landladies who continually meddle with us and other things more that you already know. Lete is going to live at No. 8, Apodaca Street, with Esteban and Figueroa, because these two were thrown out by the owner of the house for failure to pay the rent on time and for this reason they decided to take the second floor on that street.
Myself am going to Nos. 1l and 13, Peligros Street, where I have found a room with an office and alcove in a principal floor and has a balcony overlooking the street.
Likewise I have decided to avoid the bother of going out to eat and here they will serve me breakfast, lunch and dinner at the modest price of 24 duros a month. Later I shall write you their treatment of me. The house — don’t know if you remember — is on the corner of the Caballeros de Gracia Street and it is a house which is neither so ugly inside nor outside.
I must not tell you anything because I understand that everything you plan and do is according to your honest judgment and I avoid speaking to you about the matter. But, as for me, I would not have had the courage to hazard making a trip such as you have undertaken, especially in this epoch and circumstances that may hinder my purpose. Perhaps you are alone there, which is considerably far from here, which at one time was your residence. On thinking that you are many leagues from us, it seems to me that there is no such distance and I even think that we see you face to face.
I have learned that some Germans eat buffet style, that you are in one of the most beautiful cities of southern Germany and one of the notable universities.
Tell me something, should you write me, about the life, customs, character, and usages of that people. Another thing they told me is that there is found there a castle that belongs to the Middle Ages.
Farewell, Pepe, I am glad that country agrees with you well and I wait for your news in the future. You know that your ever unforgettable friend embraces you heartily,
CEFERINO
P.S
The Suyas are all well; they send you many regards.
01-144 [Family]