habit of clinging
dependence. She has agreed to flee at night with her lover,
and he is already in the garden. Her mother, the stern Dona
Perfecta, ranging uneasily through the house, enters her room
about the appointed time for the escape.]

[Illustration: _THE WEDDING DRESS._
Photogravure from a Painting by Worms.]

"Why don't you sleep?" her mother asked her.

"What time is it?" asked the girl.

"It will soon be midnight."...

Rosario was trembling, and everything about her denoted the keenest
anxiety. She lifted her eyes to heaven supplicatingly, and then turned
them on her mother with a look of the utmost terror.

"Why, what is the matter with you?"

"Did you not say it was midnight?"

"Yes."

"Then--but is it already midnight?"...

"Something is the matter with you; you have something on your mind,"
said her mother, fixing on her daughter her penetrating eyes.

"Yes--I wanted to tell you," stammered the girl, "I wanted to
say--Nothing, nothing; I will go to sleep."

"Rosario, Rosario! your mother can read your heart like an open book,"
exclaimed Dona Perfecta with severity. "You are agitated. I have
already told you that I am willing to pardon you if you will repent,
if you are a good and sensible girl."

"Why, am I not good? Ah, mamma, mamma! I am dying." Rosario burst into
a flood of bitter and disconsolate tears.

"What are these tears about?" said her mother, embracing her. "If they
are tears of repentance, blessed be they."

"I don't repent! I can't repent!" cried the girl, in a burst of
sublime despair. She lifted her head, and in her face was depicted a
sudden inspired strength. Her hair fell in disorder over her
shoulders. Never was there seen a more beautiful image of a rebellious
angel.

"What is this? Have you lost your senses?" said Dona Perfecta, laying
both hands on her daughter's shoulders.

"I am going away! I am going away!" said the girl with the exaltation
of delirium. And she sprang out of bed.

"Rosario, Rosario--my daughter! For God's sake, what is this?"

"Ah mamma, senora!" exclaimed the girl, embracing her mother; "bind me
fast!"

"In truth, you would deserve it. What madness is this?"

"Bind me fast! I am going away--I am going away with him!"...

"Has he told you to do so? has he counseled you to do that? has he
commanded you to do that?" asked the mother, launching these words
like thunderbolts against her daughter.

"He has couns