"Horrors! What detestable cigars you smoke! They taste as if they were
from Cordova!"
"You little hypocrite! It makes you squeamish!"
Filomena shrugged her shoulders, and began to run over the books in his
library, naming them aloud:--
"_Works of Moliere_ ... _Descartes_; _Discourse concerning Method...._
Method of what?... _Gil Blas de Santillana!_ Ouf! how dull that book is!
I could not get half through it. Haven't you any of Octave Fueillet's
novels? No? Then you show very poor taste.... _Plato: Dialogues._
_Goethe: Faust._ I should like to take this book, Miguel, because I only
know the opera, and I am very much interested in the argument....
_Stuart Mill: Logic...._ _Saint Thomas: Theodicea._ _Lope de Vega:
Comedias...._ _Balzac: Physiology of Marriage...._ I have read that
book; it has some very delicate and true observations.... Haven't you
read it, Maximina?"
Maximina was dumfounded.
"That is one of the books that Miguel has forbidden me to read."
Filomena fixed her eyes on him, and smiled in a peculiar way, as though
to say, "I understand you."
Then suddenly, with the vivacity and ease which marked all her
movements, she left the bookcase, opened the parlor door, and went in.
Maximina and Miguel followed her. She sat down at the piano and began to
give a powerful rendering of a polka. Before she had played it through
she jumped up, and went to the _entredos_, where there were two great
pots of flowers, and buried her face in them again and again, breathing
in the fragrance with ecstacy.
"Oh, what lovely flowers! Did you buy them?"
"No; my sister-in-law Julia sent them to me."
"I am going to give you a slip," said Miguel.
"No; it is a shame to mutilate a growing plant."
"It won't mutilate it. I am going to make you a little bouquet.
Maximina, bring me some thread and a pair of scissors."
The young wife went for what he wanted, and handed them to him gravely,
without saying a word. Then she went and sat down on the sofa, and from
there watched the arrangement of the bouquet.
While this was proceeding, Miguel and Filomena kept up a constant
warfare of repartees, in which the young lady showed sovereign freedom,
and he very little respect for her.
Maximina listened to what they said, perhaps without understanding a
word; but the expression of her sweet eyes kept growing more and more
grave and thoughtful.
Finally Miguel handed the young lady the bouquet, with a gallant smile.
She accepted it with a smile of thanks.
"For this gallant action I forgive you for all the saucy things that you
have said to me. _Caramba!_ it is already eleven o'clock!" said she,
consulting the clock that stood in front of the mirror, "and mamma told
me to make haste! _Adios_, Miguel! see you later, Maximina!"
And she flew from the room like a rocket, and opened and shut the outer
door herself. The keen and somewhat mocking glance which she gave
Maximina as she went out showed that she had an inkling of what was
passing through her mind at that moment.
The young wife started to rise; but when she saw how swiftly Filomena
was taking her departure, she sat down again, and remained there with
her arms by her side, her head bent over, and her eyes on the floor.
Miguel was looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, and
understanding perfectly what that attitude signified: he hesitated for
several minutes before he threw his arm around her.
"What is the matter?" he asked, drawing nearer and sitting down by her
side.
"Nothing," she replied, lightly lifting upon him her sweet eyes dimmed
with tears.
"Oh, what a little goose! Jealous of that impudent creature!"
"No, no! I am not jealous," rejoined the girl, forcing herself to smile.
"Only I somehow felt a pain without knowing why.... I was so happy till
a moment ago!"
"And you are now just the same as you were, sweetheart!" he said,
embracing her. "Isn't it true that you are?... Tell me yes!... A few
jokes with that shameless girl--are they sufficient to destroy all your
happiness? That isn't common sense...."
It needed a few more words to banish his wife's painful impression; and
then, wiping her eyes, she exclaimed with a trembling voice torn from
her very heart:--
"If you knew, Miguel, how I loved you!"
After their reconciliation they went out of the parlor with their arms
about each other.