in. My mind is tranquil,
my dear niece. But you know that I struggled hard, that I worked like a
negro. Ah! when I used to come home every night and say, 'Mariquilla, we
are getting on well, we are getting on very well,' you used to be wild
with delight, and you would kiss my hands again and again, and say I was
the best man on earth. Why do you fly into a passion now, disfiguring
your noble character and peaceable disposition? Why do you scold me? Why
do you say that you are indignant, and tell me in plain terms that I am
nothing better than an idiot?"

"Because," said the woman, without any diminution of her rage, "because
you have grown faint-hearted all of a sudden."

"The thing is that every thing is going against us, woman. That
confounded engineer, protected as he is by the army, is resolved to dare
every thing. The girl loves him, the girl--I will say no more. It cannot
be; I tell you that it cannot be."

"The army! But do you believe, like Dona Perfecta, that there is
going to be a war, and that to drive Don Pepe from the town it will be
necessary for one half of the nation to rise up against the other
half? The senora has lost her senses, and you are in a fair way to lose
yours."

"I believe as she does. In view of the intimate connection of Rey with
the soldiers the personal question assumes larger proportions. But, ah,
niece! if two days ago I entertained the hope that our valiant townsmen
would kick the soldiers out of the town, since I have seen the turn
things have taken, since I have seen that most of them have been
surprised before fighting, and that Caballuco is in hiding and that
the insurrection is going to the devil, I have lost confidence in every
thing. The good doctrines have not yet acquired sufficient material
force to tear in pieces the ministers and the emissaries of error. Ah,
niece! resignation, resignation!"

And Don Inocencio, employing the method of expression which
characterized his niece, heaved two or three profound sighs. Maria,
contrary to what might have been expected, maintained absolute silence.
She showed now neither anger nor the superficial sentimentality of her
ordinary life; but only a profound and humble grief. Shortly after the
good canon had ended his peroration two tears rolled down his niece's
rosy cheeks; before long were heard a few half-suppressed sighs, and
gradually, as the swell and tumult of a sea that is beginning to be
stormy rise higher and higher and be