ected them
of an intention to add Texan to their names.

His inclination to remain in San Antonio was settled by his marriage.
Dona Maria Flores, though connected with the great Mexican families of
Yturbide and Landesa, owned much property in San Antonio. She had been
born within its limits, and educated in its convent, and a visit to
Mexico and New Orleans had only strengthened her attachment to her own
city. She was a very pretty woman, with an affectionate nature, but she
was not intellectual. Even in the convent the sisters had not considered
her clever.

But men often live very happily with commonplace wives, and Robert Worth
had never regretted that his Maria did not play on the piano, and paint
on velvet, and work fine embroideries for the altars. They had passed
nearly twenty-six years together in more than ordinary content and
prosperity. Yet no life is without cares and contentions, and Robert
Worth had had to face circumstances several times, which had brought the
real man to the front.

The education of his children had been such a crisis. He had two sons
and two daughters, and for them he anticipated a wider and grander
career than he had chosen for himself. When his eldest child, Thomas,
had reached the age of fourteen, he determined to send him to New York.
He spoke to Dona Maria of this intention. He described Columbia to her
with all the affectionate pride of a student for his alma mater. The
boy's grandmother also still lived in the home wherein, he himself had
grown to manhood. His eyes filled with tears when he remembered the red
brick house in Canal Street, with its white door and dormer windows, and
its one cherry tree in the strip of garden behind.

But Dona Maria's national and religious principles, or rather
prejudices, were very strong. She regarded the college of San Juan de
Lateran in Mexico as the fountainhead of knowledge. Her confessor had
told her so. All the Yturbides and Landesas had graduated at San Juan.

But the resolute father would have none of San Juan. "I know all about
it, Maria," he said. "They will teach Thomas Latin very thoroughly. They
will make him proficient in theology and metaphysics. They will let him
dabble in algebra and Spanish literature; and with great pomp, they will
give him his degree, and 'the power of interpreting Aristotle all over
the world.' What kind of an education is that, for a man who may have to
fight the battles of life in this century?"

And