husband with a timid--

"What will you say to me?"

"What am I going to say to you, _tonta_? It must have been terrible to
get up so early! It is not yet quarter-past nine!"

Maximina, who had noticed in passing, that the clock said that it was
almost ten, was delighted with her husband's equivocation, and would
kiss him affectionately.

"Listen; you must call me to-morrow when you get up."

"All right, I will."

"On your word?"

"On my word of honor."

It is safe to say that Miguel did not fulfil this promise: he felt that
it was too great a pity to do so.

During the first months of their married life they made various calls,
and received an equal number; among others, one from the Galician
senoritas whose acquaintance they had made on the train; and they showed
Maximina a warm and boisterous affection, appropriate to such maidens.
Everywhere the young wife left a charming impression by her simple and
natural manners.

"What a good woman your wife must be!" said Miguel's friends, when they
found him alone.

The young man would smile with ill-repressed pride, and exclaim:--

"She is just a mere child!"

But he would say to himself:--

"God gave me light."

Marriage had not caused him to lose any of his independence, nor any of
those bachelor habits which are so hard to overcome at a certain age.
Maximina never demanded, or even asked, any sacrifice of him. She felt
herself absolutely happy to be the wife of the man whom she adored; and
the daily and commonplace actions of life were to her a source of
unspeakable delight.

When breakfast time came, she would lightly lift the latch of the
library door, step noiselessly up to her husband, and say:--

"It is half-past twelve now."

While they were breakfasting, the conversation which they kept up was
full of affectionate trifles; when their eyes met, they expressed mute
caresses; and many times Miguel reached across the table to get his
wife's hand and kiss it, much to the young woman's terror and
apprehension; she would instantly snatch it away by main force, glancing
at the door as though there were danger of some dragon making its
appearance.

The dragon was Juana, who was likely to appear with the waiter in her
hands.

After breakfast came the happiest hour of the day for Maximina: she
would go with her husband to the library, and he, settling himself
comfortably in an easy-chair, would take her on his knees, fold her to
him, and whisper i