Her father was still angry with her, but he was startled as well. He did not know any better than herself what the Church laid down. He did know that between him and Sarella there was no real relationship--in the law of nature there was nothing to bar their marriage, and he had acted in perfect good faith. But he did not intend to break the Church's law again. "If you are ignorant of the Church's law," he said severely, "you should not talk as if you knew it." She knew she had not so talked, but she made no attempt to excuse herself. "It is," she said quietly, "quite easy to find out. The priest at Maxwell would tell you immediately." She saw that her father, though still frowning heavily, was not entirely disregardful of her suggestion. "Father," she went on in a low gentle tone, "I beg your pardon if, being altogether surprised, I spoke suddenly, and seemed disrespectful." "You were very disrespectful," he said, with stiff resentment. Mariquita's large grave eyes were full of tears, but he did not notice them, and would have been unmoved if he had seen them. It was difficult for her to keep them from overflowing, and more difficult to go on with what she wished to say. "You know," she said, "that there are things which the Church does not allow except upon conditions, but does allow on conditions--" "What things?" "For instance, marriage with a person who is not a Catholic--" Don Joaquin received a sudden illumination. Yes! With a dispensation that would have been dutiful which he had done undutifully without one. "You think a dispensation can be obtained in--in this case." "Father," she answered almost in a whisper, "I am quite ignorant about it." He had severely reprimanded her for speaking, being ignorant. Now he wanted encouragement and ordered her to speak. "But say what you think," he said dictatorially. "As there is no real relationship," she answered, courageously enough after her former snubbing, "if such a marriage is forbidden" (he scowled blackly, but she went on), "it cannot be so by the law of God, but by the law of the Church. She cannot give anyone permission to disregard God's law, but she can, I suppose, make exception to her own law. That is what we call a dispensation. God does not forbid the use of meat on certain days, but she does. If God forbade it she could never give leave for it; but she often gives leave--not only to a certain person, but to a whole diocese, or a whole country even, for temporary reasons--what we call a dispensation." Don Joaquin had listened carefully. He was much more ignorant of ecclesiastical matters than his daughter. He had never occupied himself with considering the reasons behind ecclesiastical regulations, and much that he heard now came like entirely new knowledge. But he was Spaniard enough to understand logic very readily, and he did understand Mariquita.