to it; and
as the engineers were not willing to change their plans, the result was,
the bridge was not built till four years ago."

"All this," said Miguel, "is not so much to your honor as to that of
those intelligent young men!"

"They are such nice boys!"

"Nothing so sanctifies the soul as love and admiration," exclaimed
Rivera, sententiously.

Lola said, "Ah!" and blushed.

These three ladies were dressed in an improbable, and, if we may be
allowed the expression, an anachronistic style: their dresses were
beautiful, picturesque, and even rather fantastic, such as suited only
maidens of fifteen. Carolina wore her hair in two braids with silk
ribbons in the ends, and constricted her flabby and wrinkled neck with a
blue velvet band from which hung a little emerald crucifix: the others,
in their attempt to be a little more fashionable, had their hair done
up, but they wore just as many ribbons and other ornaments.

The evening was already at hand.

The Cuervo family proposed to have dinner, and hospitably invited their
new-made friends to partake of the luncheon that they had brought with
them; Rivera and his bride accepted, and likewise offered to share their
provisions, and with all good-fellowship and friendliness they all set
to work to make way with them, having first spread napkins over their
knees.

The brother, who had waked up just in time, fed like an elephant; during
dinner time he made few remarks, but they were to the point: one of them
was this:--

"I am a regular eagle as far as tomatoes are concerned!"

Miguel sat in silent wonder for some time, but at last he began to
appreciate the depth hidden in this hyperbolical sentence.

A close intimacy had sprang up among them all. Dolores, not satisfied
with calling Miguel by his Christian name, instead of his title,
proposed that she and Maximina should go to the extent of addressing
each other with "thou":--

"I cannot feel that a person is my friend unless I can 'thee and thou'
her.... Besides, it is customary among girls."

The bride smiled timidly at this strange proposition, and the Galician
ladies, without further excuse began to make use of the second personal
pronoun. But Maximina, though warmly urged, could not bring herself to
such a degree of intimacy, and before she knew it, she dropped into the
ordinary form,[4] whereupon the Cuervo ladies showed that they felt
affronted; the poor child found herself obliged to make use of
numb