will take her then! I shall take only what is mine."

"Leave my presence!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta, rising suddenly to her
feet. "Coxcomb, do you suppose that my daughter thinks of you?"

"She loves me, as I love her."

"It is a lie! It is a lie!"

"She herself has told me so. Excuse me if, on this point, I put more
faith in her words than in her mother's."

"How could she have told you so, when you have not seen her for several
days?"

"I saw her last night, and she swore to me before the crucifix in the
chapel that she would be my wife."

"Oh, scandal; oh, libertinism! But what is this? My God, what a
disgrace!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta, pressing her head again between
her hands and walking up and down the room. "Rosario left her room last
night?"

"She left it to see me. It was time."

"What vile conduct is yours! You have acted like a thief; you have acted
like a vulgar seducer!"

"I have acted in accordance with the teachings of your school. My
intention was good."

"And she came down stairs! Ah, I suspected it! This morning at daybreak
I surprised her, dressed, in her room. She told me she had gone out,
I don't know for what. You were the real criminal, then. This is a
disgrace! Pepe, I expected any thing from you rather than an outrage
like this. Every thing is at an end! Go away! You are dead to me. I
forgive you, provided you go away. I will not say a word about this to
your father. What horrible selfishness! No, there is no love in you. You
do not love my daughter!"

"God knows that I love her, and that is sufficient for me."

"Be silent, blasphemer! and don't take the name of God upon your lips!"
exclaimed Dona Perfecta. "In the name of God, whom I can invoke, for I
believe in him, I tell you that my daughter will never be your wife. My
daughter will be saved, Pepe; my daughter shall not be condemned to a
living hell, for a union with you would be a hell!"

"Rosario will be my wife," repeated the mathematician, with pathetic
calmness.

The pious lady was still more exasperated by her nephew's calm energy.
In a broken voice she said:

"Don't suppose that your threats terrify me. I know what I am saying.
What! are a home and a family to be outraged like this? Are human and
divine authority to be trampled under foot in this way?"

"I will trample every thing under foot," said the engineer, beginning to
lose his composure and speaking with some agitation.

"You will trample every thing und