quently reveal a twinning process, a tendency for one character to become fused in manner of being with another. Monroe Z. Hafter, in a recent essay on Gald6s, studies the ironic reprise seen in the pairing of characters "who complement one another, who react to and take on aspects of one another" and who disclose "more about themselves and the surrounding reality than they themselves understand."' The first hint we have of Gald6s' technique of showing the dynamic interplay between two personalities appears in an essay dated 1871 in which the novelist has occasion to remark that women tend to mirror their husbands' characters: "Son el marido mismo, imperfectamente reproducido; son un facsimil incorrecto" (VI, 1650).2 Novelists outside of Spain have focused attention on pairs, whether married couples or closely associated companions or even authentic twins.3 The solitary, isolated figure is the exception in Gald6s' novels; his characters usually come before us in paired combinations in relationships which evolve from an initial phase of collision and disharmony towards a gradual process of gemination.