We may not know what passed during the confession in the evening. It was long, and Aunt Isabel, who at a distance was watching over her niece, could see that instead of offering his ear to the sick girl, the curate had his face turned toward her. He went out, pale, with compressed lips. At the sight of his brow, darkened and moist with sweat, one would have said it was he who had confessed, and absolution had been denied him. "Maria! Joseph!" said the good aunt, crossing herself, "who can comprehend the girls of to-day!" XXXVIII. THE TWO WOMEN. Dona Victorina was taking a walk through the pueblo, to see of what sort were the dwellings and the advancement of the indolent Indians. She had put on her most elegant adornments, to impress the provincials, and to show what distance separated them from her sacred person. Giving her arm to her limping husband, she paraded the streets of the pueblo, to the profound amazement of its inhabitants. "What ugly houses these Indians have!" she began, with a grimace. "One must needs be an Indian to live in them! And how ill-bred the people are! They pass us without uncovering. Knock off their hats, as the curates do, and the lieutenants of the Civil Guard." "And if they attack me?" stammered the doctor. "Are you not a man?" "Yes, but--but--I am lame." Dona Victorina grew cross. There were no sidewalks in these streets, and the dust was soiling the train of her dress. Some young girls who passed dropped their eyes, and did not admire at all as they should her luxurious attire. Sinang's coachman, who was driving Sinang and her cousin in an elegant tres-por-ciento, had the effrontery to cry out to her "Tabi!" in so audacious a voice that she moved out of the way. "What a brute of a coachman!" she protested; "I shall tell his master he had better train his servants. Come along, Tiburcio!" Her husband, fearing a tempest, turned on his heels, and they found themselves face to face with the alferez. Greetings were exchanged, but Dona Victorina's discontent grew. Not only had the officer said nothing complimentary of her costume, but she believed she detected mockery in his look. "You ought not to give your hand to a simple alferez," she said to her husband, when the officer had passed. "You don't know how to preserve your rank." "H--here he is the chief." "What does that mean to us? Do we happen to be Indians?" "You are right," said Don Tiburcio, not minded to dispute.