s--is--is--I tell you there's a WOMAN
at the bottom of it! I know it sure!

Miss Mary (aside). How can I tell her about the Duchess? I won't!
(Aloud.) But listen, my dear Jovita. You know he is under probation
for you, Jovita. All this is for you. His father is cold, methodical,
unsympathetic. HE looks only to his bond with this son,--this son
that he treats, even in matters of the heart, as a BUSINESS partner.
Remember, on his complete reformation, and subjection to his father's
will, depends your hand. Remember the agreement!

Jovita. The agreement; yes! It is the agreement, always the agreement!
May the Devil fly away with the agreement! Look you, Miss Mary, I, Dona
Jovita, didn't fall in love with an agreement: it was with a man! Why, I
might have married a dozen agreements--yes, of a shorter limitation than
this! (Crossing.)

Miss Mary. Yes. But what if your lover had failed to keep those promises
by which he was to gain your hand? what if he were a man incapable of
self-control? what if he were--a--a drunkard?

Jovita (musing). A drunkard! (Aside.) There was Diego, he was a
drunkard; but he was faithless. (Aloud.) You mean a weak, faithless
drunkard?

Miss Mary. No! (Sadly.) Faithless only to himself, but devoted--yes,
devoted to YOU.

Jovita. Miss Mary, I have found that one big vice in a man is apt to
keep out a great many smaller ones.

Miss Mary. Yes; but if he were a slave to liquor?

Jovita. My dear, I should try to change his mistress. Oh, give me a
man that is capable of a devotion to anything, rather than a cold,
calculating average of all the virtues!

Miss Mary (aside). I, who aspire to be her teacher, am only her pupil.
(Aloud.) But what if, in this very drunkenness, this recklessness, he
had once loved and worshipped another woman? What if you discovered all
this after--after--he had won your heart?

Jovita. I should adore him! Ah, Miss Mary! Love differs from all the
other contagious diseases: the last time a man is exposed to it,
he takes it most readily, and has it the worst! But you, YOU cannot
sympathize with me. You have some lover, the ideal of the virtues; some
man as correct, as well regulated, as calm as--yourself; some one
who addresses you in the fixed morality and severe penmanship of the
copy-books. He will never precipitate himself over a garden wall or
through a window. Your Jacob will wait for you through seven years, and
receive you from the hands of your cousin and guar