Loco de la Colina bar is the setting for a brief but revealing confrontation: Pencho Gavira sits there trying to put the pressure of the bank and the church behind him, only to see his estranged wife, Macarena, arrive with Lorenzo Quart. The scene turns a crowded, apparently ordinary night out into a test of jealousy, restraint, and mutual recognition.

Setting and Circumstances

Gavira occupies the terrace with a companion while his employee Celestino Peregil keeps watch inside, near the door. The bar’s lively, everyday surroundings make the gathering look almost domestic. Yet Gavira’s drink is also an attempted respite from the Banco Cartujano and the church business, and Peregil knows that the church affair remains active: Don Ibrahim and his associates have been instructed to set a small fire intended to prevent the Thursday Mass.

Peregil’s watchful position gives him sight of the street corner and the bar entrance. He has been anticipating news from Don Ibrahim’s group, but instead sees Macarena and Quart appear. The change is immediate: what had seemed to Peregil a comfortable evening for his employer now threatens to become a public scene.

The Encounter

Gavira rises slowly, visibly struggling to master his anger, and greets Macarena. He has reason to be jealous: the couple are separated but still technically married, and recent publicity linking Macarena with the bullfighter Curro Maestral has inflamed the situation. Quart’s polished, healthy appearance further sharpens Gavira’s suspicion. Peregil, watching from the doorway, fears that the encounter will end in violence.

Gavira makes a deliberate effort not to strike Quart. As he prepares himself, he follows the advice once given to him by Octavio Machuca: resist the first impulse, occupy the hands, and allow thought time to catch up with adrenaline. The careful act of putting on and fastening his jacket becomes a visible means of restraint; his gaze remains fixed on Macarena, whose eyes seem cold to him.

A Shift in the Balance

The danger eases when Gavira notices Quart holding Gavira’s own glass close to the table’s edge, in a position where a small movement could break it. Gavira reads this as evidence that the priest is not a man who simply turns the other cheek. The discovery checks his aggression and replaces it with curiosity—and a twisted respect.

Quart apologizes with a slight smile and sets the glass back on the table, where Gavira’s companion, Penélope Heidegger, has been tapping her painted nails impatiently. He and Macarena continue on without further comment. Gavira watches them leave, drinks deeply, and appears thoughtful, even grateful; behind him, Peregil exhales in relief. The encounter ends without a fight, but not without consequence: Gavira suppresses the urge to smash his glass as his eyes remain fixed on the corner where his wife and the priest disappeared.

Narrative Significance

The bar scene compresses the novel’s overlapping private and public conflicts into one encounter. Gavira’s marriage, his jealousy, and his business entanglements converge in a place where Peregil is simultaneously guarding his employer and worrying about the planned attack on the church. The contrast between the evening’s easy sociability and the violence just beneath it makes restraint—not reconciliation—the scene’s decisive outcome. Quart’s quiet gesture changes Gavira’s reading of him, while Macarena’s departure leaves the tension unresolved.