nd Julia taking a cup of
lime juice in the dining-room.

As their eyes met, Don Alfonso smiled not very openly. Julita had a very
high color. Don Alfonso's smile seemed to say: "I know why you are
drinking that _tila_."

Julita's blushes proclaimed in a loud voice: "You have caught me in the
very act!"

At the beginning of summer Saavedra determined to go and make his mother
a visit before returning to Paris. Julia heard the news with
indifference; she even started to sing some Malaga songs at the piano,
leaving her mother and cousin to talk about the journey.

_La brigadiera_ begged him to stay a few days longer; Don Alfonso
refused gently but obstinately, declaring that he had given his mother
notice, and had named the day on which he should reach Seville.

_La brigadiera_ urged him persistently, like a woman accustomed to have
her own way, and Don Alfonso resisted no less persistently, like a man
whose determinations, though expressed politely, are irrevocably fixed.

Julia suddenly stopped singing, and half turning round, said, in a dry
and impatient tone:--

"Mamma, you are annoying him; do cease!"

"I am not going for my own pleasure, Julia," returned Don Alfonso,
blandly; "you know too well that nowhere in the world am I more
contented than I am here, and that I am perfectly satisfied to be with
Aunt Angela and you; but I have duties toward my mother that I must
fulfil, and I am obliged to be in Seville."

Julia listened to these words with her back turned, and once more began
to play and sing, without making any reply.

The day set by Don Alfonso for his departure was a Wednesday; the two or
three days preceding, Julia had been smiling and indifferent as before;
but the circle under her eyes was darker and wider, and from time to
time she would remain looking into vacancy.

Saavedra had determined to start in the morning, on an early train, with
the idea of spending the day at Aranjuez with a friend who had a country
place there.

He therefore arose very early, and after dressing he gave the last
touches to his packing. His aunt also arose early, to see him off, and
get him something to eat besides.

But Julia paid no heed, and remained shut in her room, much to the
annoyance of _la brigadiera_, who had called her to say good by to their
guest.

Taking advantage of a moment when she was busy in the dining-room,
Saavedra slipped off to his cousin's room, gently raised the latch, and
opened the