"Come, tell me, what are you thinking about?"
"I want to ask a favor of you, ..." she whispered timidly.
"Only one? I would like you to ask me five hundred, and that I might
grant them!"
"If I might ... if you would let me be married in one of my own
dresses...."
The young man remained for a moment lost in amazement: then he asked
sadly:--
"Don't you wish to be married in the dress that I brought you?"
"It would be very mortifying to me!"
"Besides, it is the fashion to be married in a white dress; especially
for maidens like you!"
"Here it is not the fashion.... I should be mortified to death!"
Miguel tried to persuade her, but in vain. After exhausting his
arguments, which were not very varied, he was anxious to come to a
settlement of the difficulty. But Dona Rosalia had noticed something,
and lifting her head, she asked:--
"What does this mean? You were not quarrelling, I hope?"
"Nothing, Dona Rosalia; Maximina does not wish to be married in the
white dress,--because it would mortify her."