efend her; yes, I
will defend her. She is as pure as an angel. Why, uncle, those things
bring a blush to my cheek, and make me indignant with you."

As she spoke the good priest's face was darkened by a cloud of sadness
that made him look ten years older.

"My dear Remedios," he said, "we have done all that is humanly possible,
and all that in conscience we can or ought to do. Nothing could be more
natural than our desire to see Jacintillo connected with that great
family, the first in Orbajosa; nothing more natural than our desire
to see him master of the seven houses in the town, the meadow of
Mundogrande, the three gardens of the upper farm, La Encomienda, and the
other lands and houses which that girl owns. Your son has great merit,
every one knows it well. Rosarito liked him, and he liked Rosarito.
The matter seemed settled. Dona Perfecta herself, without being very
enthusiastic, doubtless on account of our origin, seemed favorably
disposed toward it, because of her great esteem and veneration for
me, as her confessor and friend. But suddenly this unlucky young man
presents himself. The senora tells me that she has given her word to
her brother, and that she cannot reject the proposal made by him. A
difficult situation! But what do I do in view of all this? Ah, you don't
know every thing! I will be frank with you. If I had found Senor de
Rey to be a man of good principles, calculated to make Rosario happy, I
would not have interfered in the matter; but the young man appeared to
me to be a wretch, and, as the spiritual director of the house, it was
my duty to take a hand in the business, and I took it. You know already
that I determined to unmask him. I exposed his vices; I made manifest
his atheism; I laid bare to the view of all the rottenness of that
materialistic heart, and the senora was convinced that in giving her
daughter to him, she would be delivering her up to vice. Ah, what
anxieties I endured! The senora vacillated; I strengthened her wavering
mind; I advised her concerning the means she might lawfully employ to
send her nephew away without scandal. I suggested ingenious ideas to
her; and as she often spoke to me of the scruples that troubled her
tender conscience, I tranquillized her, pointing out to her how far
it was allowable for us to go in our fight against that lawless enemy.
Never did I counsel violent or sanguinary measures or base outrages, but
always subtle artifices, in which there was no s