n her ears the sweetest things she ever heard.
Sometimes it happened that he would fall into a doze, and Maximina would
not lift a finger for fear of waking him; and even though her position
were uncomfortable, she would endure it until Miguel opened his eyes.

"There now, I must be going!" he would say, getting up. "What! so soon?"
she would exclaim sadly.

Miguel would fondle her, and smile, and take leave of her at the door.
It seemed as though these leave-takings would never end.

"They might see us from the opposite side," Maximina would say, tearing
herself out of his arms.

"But the door is closed!"

"That makes no difference; they might see us through the
_ventanilla_.[20]"

Sometimes, as a little joke on his wife, he would start to go without
saying good by; but as soon as she heard him raise the latch, she would
drop whatever she was engaged in doing, whether in the dining-room, the
kitchen, or in her own room, and fly to the door. When she did not hear
the latch, he would do his best to make her hear it.

Maximina spent her afternoons with the servants. Besides Juana, they had
hired two others,--a cook, and another maid, who had a better idea of
laundry work than the maid from Pasajes.

When Miguel came in at dusk, and rang the bell, the young woman's heart
would give a leap, and she herself would run to open the door for him.
Sometimes she would let the maid open it; but then she would hide behind
the door or in the next room. The maid's smiling face would betray the
secret to the young man, that his wife was somewhere near, and he would
say, sniffing in a comical way:--

"I smell Maximina here."

And then he would go straight to where she was hiding, and catch her by
the arm.

"I don't see how you found me so quick," she would say, with simulated
disappointment. At other times she would open the _ventanilla_, and
ask:--

"What is it you want?"

"Does Don Miguel Rivera live here?" he would ask.

"Yes, senor; but he is not at home."

"Is the senora in?"

"The senora is in, but she cannot receive you."

"Tell her that there is a gentleman here who wants to give her a hug and
a kiss."

They laughed and amused themselves with these trifles, and the young
wife never thought of asking her husband to give her an account of his
time. She would go with him to the library. Miguel would take a book and
sit down, saying:--

"There now, leave me alone a few minutes; I want to read."

"You naug