we
give him a fright? I don't know what the senora would think about it.
I say that because I was at her house this evening, and it seemed to me
that the mother and daughter had become reconciled."

"Don't be a fool! Why don't you go in?"

"Now I remember that the armed men are not there; I told them to leave
this evening."

"And this block of marble still doubts what he ought to do! Ramos, go
into the garden and don't be a coward."

"How can I go in if the door is closed?"

"Get over the wall. What a snail! If I were a man----"

"Well, then, up! There are some broken bricks here where the boys climb
over the wall to steal the fruit."

"Up quickly! I will go and knock at the front door to waken the senora,
if she should be asleep."

The Centaur climbed up, not without difficulty. He sat astride on the
wall for an instant, and then disappeared among the dark foliage of the
trees. Maria Remedios ran desperately toward the Calle del Condestable,
and, seizing the knocker of the front door, knocked--knocked three times
with all her heart and soul.

CHAPTER XXXI

DONA PERFECTA

See with what tranquillity Senora Dona Perfecta pursues her occupation
of writing. Enter her room, and, notwithstanding the lateness of the
hour, you will surprise her busily engaged, her mind divided between
meditation and the writing of several long and carefully worded epistles
traced with a firm hand, every hair-stroke of every letter in which is
correctly formed. The light of the lamp falls full upon her face and
bust and hands, its shade leaving the rest of her person and almost the
whole of the room in a soft shadow. She seems like a luminous figure
evoked by the imagination from amid the vague shadows of fear.

It is strange that we should not have made before this a very important
statement, which is that Dona Perfecta was handsome, or rather that she
was still handsome, her face preserving the remains of former beauty.
The life of the country, her total lack of vanity, her disregard for
dress and personal adornment, her hatred of fashion, her contempt for
the vanities of the capital, were all causes why her native beauty
did not shine or shone very little. The intense shallowness of her
complexion, indicating a very bilious constitution, still further
impaired her beauty.

Her eyes black and well-opened, her nose finely and delicately shaped,
her forehead broad and smooth, she was considered by all who saw her as
a fini