e."

"Only in one point, as you well know. In all the rest I obey blindly."

The point was marriage. Maximina did not cease to urge him to get
married.

"Hitherto I have never found a woman who would satisfy me for a wife,"
he replied.

"Why don't you marry Julia?" she asked one day at random, with the
ingenuous frankness characteristic of her.

Don Alfonso was a trifle confused.

"Julia is a good girl.... Very well educated ... she is talented ... she
is pretty.... But see here! confidentially, do you think that I should
be happy with Julia?"

"Why not?" demanded the young wife.

Saavedra kept silent a few minutes, remaining apparently lost in
thought; then he said:--

"You will readily understand that as you are her sister-in-law, and I am
her cousin, neither of us can with delicacy speak about her except in
terms of praise, which she certainly deserves in many regards. But with
you I have the courage to say one thing, and that is that we are not
congenial. We are two...."

And Don Alfonso put his two index fingers end to end.

"Why, I supposed that you were fond of each other!"

"Yes, we are fond of each other, but ... between this and marriage there
is a considerable distance.... I remind you that I have just spoken as
though you were my mother. Don't say anything of this to Miguel. He is
her brother, and the most insignificant thing might trouble him."

In this insidious manner the serpent tried to make his way into this
paradise. And he succeeded at last. As he had wisdom enough not to take
advantage of it, he soon acquired a certain familiarity in visiting at
their house, but always at the time when Miguel was at home; he knew
perfectly well that the least shadow of suspicion passing through his
mind would be sufficient to put an end to everything--God only knew how!

He also seized upon the occasions when _la brigadiera_ and Julia were
going to call on the young couple to accompany them. The jealousy which
the Brigadier's daughter had felt on the night of the party had
completely vanished when she saw the brotherly familiarity with which he
treated her sister-in-law, and the pains which the latter took to bring
her and her cousin together, and see them talk by themselves.

"It was through you that I got married; I have made up my mind to make a
match for you," said Maximina.

"Yes, but through me you married the man whom you loved," replied Julia,
with a laugh.

"You love Alfonso also; don'