the attack so as not to do it rashly.

Nevertheless, as his passion and impatience kept growing each day more
impetuous, and he was not a man ever to be found wanting in audacity, he
tried the experiment of giving her a few muffled gallantries, and these
the young wife received as the jokes of a pampered friend; then again,
he would sometimes press her hand a little too warmly when he greeted
her, touch her foot lightly under the table, and even pulled out a hair
or two stealthily, while her lord and master was dozing in his
easy-chair.

Maximina at first supposed that these things were accidental, and paid
no attention to them; but as the Andalusian persisted in them, she was a
little startled, though without having any clear idea of the danger, and
she tried to keep him at a distance, and from that time she began to
have a vague fear.

Though his first efforts met with results so far from flattering, still
Don Alfonso was completely infatuated, and though he would not have been
willing to confess it, he was very near losing his self-possession in
which he took such pride, and ready to "throw discretion out of the
window."

How this came about we shall soon see.

Miguel was very particular that his son should have plenty of fresh air;
he was full of modern theories of education, and believed that children
ought to live as much as possible out of doors from the earliest
infancy. Thus, as soon as Maximina was able to go out, he began to take
long walks with her through the Retiro. How happy our little mother was
in having her husband at her side, and her baby in front of her!

And what a baby he was!

It was necessary to have followed his progress step by step, as she had
for a month and a half, to appreciate the portentous gifts with which he
was endowed, and the boundless resources of his unequalled genius. She
would have been greatly offended had any one insinuated that he still
sucked his fingers when he accidentally thrust them into his mouth;
nothing of the kind! after he had been a fortnight in this vale of
tears, he had raised his thumb to his mouth with the set and deliberate
intention of sucking it, for nothing else. But this did not signify in
the least that the said thumb was as satisfactory to him as his mamma's
breast; he did it simply to amuse himself in moments of diversion. His
exquisite and delicate taste was equally well shown by his energetic
refusal to take the porridge which Juana had the im