the third than in the
second; and so on till death. It is impossible not to have a certain
sort of admiration for this kind of pride. Cruel, those who have it, are
to all who come in their way; but they are equally cruel to themselves,
when pride demands the sacrifice. Such pride as this has led many a
forlorn hope, on the earth, when all other motives have died out of
men's breasts; has won many a crown, which has not been called by its
true name.

Before the afternoon was over, the Senora had her plan, her chart of
the future, as it were, all reconstructed; the sting of her discomfiture
soothed; the placid quiet of her manner restored; her habitual
occupations also, and little ways, all resumed. She was going to do
"nothing" in regard to Ramona. Only she herself knew how much that
meant; how bitterly much! She wished she were sure that Felipe also
would do "nothing;" but her mind still misgave her about Felipe.
Unpityingly she had led him on, and entangled him in his own words,
step by step, till she had brought him to the position she wished him to
take. Ostensibly, his position and hers were one, their action a unit;
all the same, she did not deceive herself as to his real feeling about
the affair. He loved Ramona. He liked Alessandro. Barring the question
of family pride, which he had hardly thought of till she suggested
it, and which he would not dwell on apart from her continuing to press
it,--barring this, he would have liked to have Alessandro marry Ramona
and remain on the place. All this would come uppermost in Felipe's
mind again when he was removed from the pressure of her influence.
Nevertheless, she did not intend to speak with him on the subject again,
or to permit him to speak to her. Her ends would be best attained
by taking and keeping the ground that the question of their
non-interference having been settled once for all, the painful topic
should never be renewed between them. In patient silence they must await
Ramona's action; must bear whatever of disgrace and pain she chose to
inflict on the family which had sheltered her from her infancy till now.

The details of the "nothing" she proposed to do, slowly arranged
themselves in her mind. There should be no apparent change in Ramona's
position in the house. She should come and go as freely as ever; no
watch on her movements; she should eat, sleep, rise up and sit down
with them, as before; there should be not a word, or act, that Felipe's
sympathe