Our Friend Manso by Benito Pérez Galdós.

Maximo Manso meets his neighbor, Dona Javiera de Pena, one night in the summer of 1878, when a fire alarm forces the residents to leave their building. Dona Javiera is a warm, expansive woman who owns a lucrative meat business. She takes an interest in Maximo and stops by his apartment often to talk or to bring him a cut of meat. A woman of low origins and little education, Dona Javiera is in awe of Maximo’s vast knowledge. He, in turn, is impressed with his neighbor’s perceptiveness and common sense.