keen though
insidious doubts that always attack the poet or painter during the last
moments of creation. After they were all seated in their places, one
would jump up and trip over deftly to set the diamond pin farther back,
and another would approach her and give the sprig of orange blossoms
"the least bit of a twist"; another would find it necessary slightly to
rearrange the hair; and still another would smooth out a wrinkle in the
dress, and another adjust it about the neck. In fact, there was a
constant coming and going. Maximina allowed them to do as they pleased,
and for all their efforts she thanked them with a smile.

"See here, Don Miguel, you have not been to confession yet, have you?"
inquired Dona Rosalia.

"No; that is a fact: no one reminded me of it," replied the young man,
suddenly rising. "And Maximina?"

"I have already been."

"Then let us be about it, gentlemen!"

As he went out, he again gave Maximina a keen glance, which the girl
pretended not to notice.

As yet not even the first gleams of daylight tinged the eastern sky; it
is true it had grown cloudy during the night, and the rain was still
falling. With umbrella spread, and muffled in their great-coats, Miguel
and Don Valentin made their way along the deserted street.

Never had starry and diaphanous night in August seemed more beautiful to
our hero: this early morning chill, damp and melancholy, remained graven
on his heart as the loveliest of his life. The church offered a still
more gloomy and lugubrious spectacle.

They sent word to the cure, and it was not long before he came. He was
an elderly gentleman, and, considering the importance of the wedding,
answered with resignation the call at such an unusual hour. He led the
young man gently by the hand to a dark corner of the temple, and there
listened to his confession.

Miguel was still on his knees before the priest when he heard the noise
of the wedding procession as it entered the church with considerable
tumult, and his heart melted within him, not with sorrow at having
offended God, we must confess to his shame, but with sweet and delicious
longing.

After granting him absolution, the cure returned to the sacristy to robe
himself, and Miguel joined his friends, without being able to catch
sight of his bride. Only when the sacristan came to tell them to come to
the grand altar, did he see her, accompanied by her aunt. The friends
went forward, pushing their way, and met, w