Pepita and himself
clung together hidden in the loft at night, listening to their mother's
sobs, and often to the sound of blows and curses rained down upon her
because she was no longer a beauty, and there were beauties who had
smiles to bestow on handsome fellows who were free, and even upon those
who were not? It was enough to irritate any handsome fellow--this one
had thought--to come home to a squalid place after enjoyment, and
be forced to face poverty and children and a haggard wife with large
staring eyes, red with weeping. Yes, Pepita and Jose remembered all
this, and upon Pepita's character it had left curious traces. Young as
she was, she had awakened quite grand passions in more than one heart,
and on two or three occasions the suitors had been of far better fortune
than herself--one of them, indeed, being the only son of a rich farmer,
who might have chosen a wife of much greater importance than this
pretty, scornful child, and whose family rebelled bitterly against
his folly, and at last sent him away to Seville, but not before Pepita
herself had coolly trodden him under her small feet.

"I like you less than any of them," she said, fixing her great, direct
eyes upon him when he revealed his frenzy. "Go and marry that girl your
father chose for you--if she will have you. They have no need to be
afraid and speak ill of me. I don't want you. I can't bear to have you
stand near me."

To Jose it never occurred to complain of her, but Jovita's sense of
worldly advantage was outraged at this time, and she did not hesitate to
express herself with much freedom and grumbling.

"God knows, I want no haste," she said; "but this is a chance for any
girl. And see what a fool she is. But that is as it always happens.
There will come along some worthless fellow, and she will be fooled like
the rest, and be ready enough to run after him."

"I!" said Pepita, who stood in the doorway. "I!" And she opened her dark
eyes in genuine anger and amazement.

"Yes, you," answered Jovita. "And you will be worse than any of them.
Girls who think themselves too good to be spoken to are always easiest
to coax when they find their match. Let him come, and you'll drop like a
ripe grape."

"He will never come," said Pepita. "Never!" And there was not a shade of
doubt in her look--nothing but cold indignation at Jovita's ill-humor.
"I am not afraid of men. They are all stupid. They think they can have
anything they want, and they can