g a few steps toward her cousin, said:--

"Don't chase me any more; I will tie the cravat, but I won't promise to
do it well."

"It is enough if you do it; it is a punishment which I impose upon you."

Laughing, though her hands trembled a little, she arranged the tie.

"What is that you have hanging there?" she asked, bending her head so as
to examine a trinket which her cousin wore on his watch-chain.

"A gold heart.... Just like mine!"

And as he said that he bent over and imprinted a kiss on the girl's
neck.

Julia straightened herself up as though a pin had pricked her, flushed
deeply, and giving him a severe look, said in a muffled voice:--

"I assure you that I do not wish you to do such a thing again!"

Saavedra looked at her with mischievous, mirth-provoking eyes, and not
paying any attention to her anger, went on calmly talking to her. Julia,
uncertain what course to take, replied gravely to his questions, and did
not look at him. Finally his perfect calmness and confidence had their
effect upon her, and in a little while she was as gay as ever.

Their relations continued on this friendly footing for a number of days,
until suddenly Julia for some occult reason began to grow sober and
melancholy. Some afternoons, instead of going to the parlor to talk
with the visitor, she left him alone with her mother; if she met him in
the corridor, she would give him a serious and furtive glance, and let
him pass without a word; sometimes when he addressed her, she would not
answer, pretending not to hear him; at other times, if she happened to
go into the library, and found him there reading a newspaper, she would
turn back in all haste.

All these signs of disregard or resentment, strange as it may seem, had
no effect whatever on Don Alfonso, who, as though not noticing them,
continued to show her the same gallantry as before, even more pronounced
if possible, and he did not in the least alter his habits, nor his hours
of entering or leaving the house.

It must not be supposed that Julia was sad every day; there were some,
when without the least apparent reason, she would appear extraordinarily
gay, filling the whole house with her merry voice, rallying her mamma,
her cousin, and every one who happened to be visiting them, and being
far more audacious in her witticisms than usual.... But in the midst of
this obstreperous gayety, she would suddenly stop for several moments,
with her eyes set and ecstatic, and