Pale and panting, the girl finally subdued her emotion and began to listen. She could hear his voice, that voice which for so long a time she had heard only in her dreams. Beside herself with joy, she kissed the nearest saint, which, by the way, happened to be San Antonio, the abbot. Happy saint! Whether alive or carved in wood, always tempted in the most charming manner! Becoming quite herself again, she looked about for some crack through which she might get a peep at the young man. Finally, when he came in range of the key-hole and she again saw his fine features, her face beamed with smiles. In fact, the sight filled her with such joy that when her aunt came to call her, Maria Clara fell on the old lady's neck and kissed her repeatedly. "You goose! What is the matter with you?" the old lady was finally able to ask, after wiping away her tears. Maria Clara, in her modesty, covered her face with her round arm. "Come! Hurry up and get yourself ready!" said the old lady in an affectionate tone. "While he is talking with your father about you---- Come, do not waste time!" The girl did not respond, but allowed herself to be picked up like a child and carried to her room. Captain Tiago and Ibarra were talking earnestly when at last Aunt Isabel appeared, half dragging her niece by the hand. At first the girl looked in every direction but at the persons present. At last, however, her eyes met Ibarra's. The conversation of the young lovers was at first confined to the usual trifling remarks, those pleasant little things which, like the boasts of European nations, are enjoyable and interesting to those who are concerned and understand them, but ridiculous to outsiders. Finally, she, like all sisters of Cain, was moved by jealously and asked: "Have you always thought of me? Have you never forgotten me in your many travels among so many great cities and among such beautiful women?" And he, a true brother of Cain, dodged the issue, and, being something of a diplomat, answered: "Could I forget you?" And then, gazing into her deep, dark eyes, "Could I break a sacred vow? Do you remember that stormy night when you, seeing me in tears beside my dead mother, came to me and placed your hand--that hand which I have not touched for so long--upon my shoulder, and said: 'You have lost your mother,--I never had one.' And then you wept with me. You loved my mother, and she loved you as only a mother can love a daughter. It was raining then, you will remember, and the lightning flashed, but I seemed to hear music and to see a smile on the face of my dead mother.--O, if my parents were only living and could see you now!--That night I took your hand and, joining it with my mother's, I swore always to love you and make you happy, no matter what fate Heaven might have in store for me. I have never regretted that vow, and now renew it."