g on his knees, was
playing with his glove.

At the end of a long silence Maximina exclaimed in the midst of her
sobs:--

"_Madre mia!_ how unhappy I am to-day!"

Miguel's face was violently contracted into an expression of anger;
after a while, trying to soften his voice, but still letting it sound
very harsh, he said:--

"I had not the slightest idea of such a thing. I did not think that you
were so badly married!"

"No, Miguel, no," she hastened to say; "you are very good to me, but
this evening you have greatly tortured me ... perhaps without being
aware of it."

Miguel gave an ironical laugh.

"I am not the one who tortures you ... it is your own self. You insist
on seeing visions, you lose your wits, and when it is least to be
expected, _zas!_ you are committing some solecism!... What you just did,
getting up in a state of anger and calling Filomena, ... and the
severity with which you spoke to her, might have compromised us in
everybody's eyes.... Fortunately she is a talented girl who knew how to
dissemble...."

"Yes, yes; dissemble because it suited her convenience. Indeed, I
believe that she dissembles!"

"Come now, don't talk nonsense, Maximina."

"I am telling the truth, and everybody saw it.... This woman either
loves you or wants to torment me. This whole evening long she has not
ceased to look sneeringly at me...."

"Do you realize how ridiculous you are with your jealousy? Why should
Filomena look at you in such a way? You know her character too well,
that she is always joking, and that this saucy expression is habitual to
her eyes."

"That is right; take her part, take her part!" exclaimed the young wife,
in a tone of deep pain. "She is the good saint, the talented woman! I am
the fool, the absurd, the ridiculous!"

Miguel jumped up, gave his wife an angry look, and shrugging his
shoulders, exclaimed:--

"What stupidity!"

And he slowly walked toward his study. When Maximina heard her husband's
steps, she quickly raised her head and cried in supreme anguish, her
eyes swimming With tears:--

"Miguel! Miguel!"

But he, without even turning his head, replied with affected disdain:--

"Go to the deuce!" And he left the room.

Foolish Miguel! cowardly Miguel! Years will pass, and when you remember
those words, you will feel your heart torn within you and the tears wet
your cheeks. But at that instant, excited by anger, he had no thought of
his injustice and cruelty nor of the havo