One Hundred Years of Solitude

led away. Underneath it all,
Aureliano Segundo did not
believe in the legitimacy of
the proof. Just as he never
believed that Mauricio
Babilonia had gone into the
yard to steal chickens, but
both expedients served to
ease his conscience, and thus
he could go back without
remorse under the shadow of
Petra Cotes, where he revived
his noisy revelry and
unlimited gourmandizing.