it."

"Well, I don't propose to face it," continued Felipe, testily. "I don't
propose to have anything to do with it, from first to last. Let her go
away with him, if she wants to.'

"Without our consent?" said the Senora, gently.

"Yes, without it, if she can't go with it; and I don't see, as you have
stated it, how we could exactly take any responsibility about marrying
her to Alessandro. But for heaven's sake, mother, let her go! She will
go, any way. You haven't the least idea how she loves Alessandro, or how
he loves her. Let her go!"

"Do you really think she would run away with him, if it came to that?"
asked the Senora, earnestly. "Run away and marry him, spite of our
refusing to consent to the marriage?"

"I do," said Felipe.

"Then it is your opinion, is it, that the only thing left for us to do,
is to wash our hands of it altogether, and leave her free to do what she
pleases?"

"That's just what I do think, mother," replied Felipe, his heart growing
lighter at her words. "That's just what I do think. We can't prevent
it, and it is of no use to try. Do let us tell them they can do as they
like."

"Of course, Alessandro must leave us, then," said the Senora. "They
could not stay here."

"I don't see why!" said Felipe, anxiously.

"You will, my son, if you think a moment. Could we possibly give a
stronger indorsement to their marriage than by keeping them here? Don't
you see that would be so?"

Felipe's eyes fell. "Then I suppose they couldn't be married here,
either," he said.

"What more could we do than that, for a marriage that we heartily
approved of, my son?"

"True, mother;" and Felipe clapped his hand to his forehead. "But then
we force them to run away!"

"Oh, no." said the Senora, icily. "If they go, they will go of their
own accord. We hope they will never do anything so foolish and wrong. If
they do, I suppose we shall always be held in a measure responsible for
not having prevented it. But if you think it is not wise, or of no use
to attempt that, I do not see what there is to be done."

Felipe did not speak. He felt discomfited; felt as if he had betrayed
his friend Alessandro, his sister Ramona; as if a strange complication,
network of circumstances, had forced him into a false position; he did
not see what more he could ask, what more could be asked, of his mother;
he did not see, either, that much less could have been granted to
Alessandro and Ramona; he was angry, wearied,