indirect means to attain a good
and honorable end? By what right do you judge actions of mine that you
do not clearly understand? I, my dear nephew, manifesting a sincerity
which you do not deserve, confess to you that I have indeed employed
subterfuges to attain a good end, to attain what was at the same time
beneficial to you and to my daughter. You do not comprehend? You look
bewildered. Ah! your great mathematician's and German philosopher's
intellect is not capable of comprehending these artifices of a prudent
mother."

"I am more and more astounded every moment," said the engineer.

"Be as astounded as you choose, but confess your barbarity," said the
lady, with increasing spirit; "acknowledge your hastiness and your
brutal conduct toward me in accusing me as you have done. You are a
young man without any experience or any other knowledge than that which
is derived from books, which teach nothing about the world or the
human heart. All you know is how to make roads and docks. Ah, my young
gentleman! one does not enter into the human heart through the tunnel of
a railroad, or descend into its depths through the shaft of a mine.
You cannot read in the conscience of another with the microscope of a
naturalist, nor decide the question of another's culpability measuring
ideas with a theodolite."

"For God's sake, dear aunt!"

"Why do you pronounce the name of God when you do not believe in him?"
said Dona Perfecta, in solemn accents. "If you believed in him, if you
were a good Christian, you would not dare to form evil judgments about
my conduct. I am a devout woman, do you understand? I have a tranquil
conscience, do you understand? I know what I am doing and why I do it,
do you understand?"

"I understand, I understand, I understand!"

"God in whom you do not believe, sees what you do not see and what you
cannot see--the intention. I will say no more; I do not wish to enter
into minute explanations, for I do not need to do so. Nor would you
understand me if I should tell you that I desired to attain my object
without scandal, without offending your father, without offending you,
without giving cause for people to talk by an explicit refusal--I will
say nothing of all this to you, for you would not understand it, either,
Pepe. You are a mathematician. You see what is before your eyes, and
nothing more; brute matter and nothing more. You see the effect, and not
the cause. God is the supreme intention of the worl