Don Joaquin did not think it objectionable in his daughter "not to see" "you and me"--himself and Sarella--too hastily. But it would ultimately be advisable that she should see what was coming before it actually came. That would save telling. Neither would he have been pleased if she had quickly scented a lover in Mr. Gore; that would have offended her father's sense of dignity. Nor would it have been advisable for her to suspect a lover in Mr. Gore at any time, if Mr. Gore were not intending to be one. Once he was really desirous of being one, and her father approved, she might as well awake to it. "It is true," he said, "Mariquita has not those ideas." There was undoubtedly a calm communication in his tone. Sarella could not decide whether it implied censure of "those ideas" elsewhere. "Not seeing what can be seen," she suggested with some pique, "may deceive others. Thus false hopes are given." "Mariquita has given no hopes to anyone," her father declared sharply. "Certainly not. Yet Mr. Gore may think that what is visible must be seen--like his 'interest' in her; and that, since it is seen and not disapproved...." "Only, as you said, Mariquita _doesn't_ see." "He may not understand that. He may see nothing objectionable in himself...." "There is nothing objectionable. The contrary." And Sarella knew from his tone that Don Joaquin did not disapprove of Mr. Gore as a possible son-in-law. "How hard it is," she thought, "to get these Spaniards to say anything out. Why can't they say what they mean?" Sarella was not deficient in a sort of superficial good-nature. It seemed to her that she would have to "help things along." She thought it out of the question for Mariquita to go on indefinitely at the range, doing the work of three women for no reward, and rapidly losing her youth, letting her life be simply wasted. There had never been anyone before Mr. Gore, and never would be anyone else; it would be a providential way out of the present impossible state of things if he and Mariquita should make a match of it. And why shouldn't they? She did not believe that he was actually in love with Mariquita yet; perhaps he never would be till he discovered in her some sort of response. And Mariquita if left to herself was capable of going on for ten years just as she was. "Mr. Gore," she told Don Joaquin, "is not the sort of man to throw himself at a girl's head if he imagined it would be unpleasant to her." "Why should he be unpleasant to her?" "No reason at all. And he isn't unpleasant to her. Only she never thinks of--that sort of thing." Her father did not want her to "think of that sort of thing"--till called upon. Sarella saw that, and thought him as stupid as his daughter.