"No, no," said Doña Constancia; "let Don Carlos go alone. It is right that my father should know of this, but I do not wish that you should have any dispute with him. Such an idea! If you mention it to him he will never speak to you again." "Constancia says that it is absolutely impossible to think of such a thing as a marriage between them," said Don Roderigo. "The idea is folly," said Doña Constancia. "That Gregorio should amuse himself with a gauchita, to that we are accustomed, but Roderigo says that they insist upon him marrying her!" "I fear me, Señora," said Evaña, "that is the only course left open to him. This Mauricia is no gauchita, she is a cousin of your own, Señora." "Cousin! we recognise no such relationship," replied Doña Constancia haughtily. "What are you going to tell my father, Don Carlos?" "I am going to tell him the simple facts, he will decide for himself whether he will interfere at all in the matter." "But you will be careful not to mention to him that these Vianas insist upon him marrying the girl?" "I shall tell him that also, Señora, and shall do my best to prevail upon him to consent to it." "Don Carlos!" exclaimed Doña Constancia, clasping her hands and looking at him in astonishment. "I see nothing so extravagant in the idea, Señora. For years you have all been wishing that Don Gregorio would marry, he is old enough to know what sort of a wife will suit him best." "Pues! do what you think best, but my father, I know, will never give his consent, and we can never receive her." "That may never be necessary," said Don Roderigo. "Don Gregorio will live on his estancia, it is the life for which he is most fitted." Evaña went and saw Don Gregorio, for more than two hours they talked together. "My son could seek a wife in the first families. Of those Vianas of Chascomus I wish no one to speak to me, for me they are as though they did not exist," said Don Gregorio, as he walked up and down the dining-room in his anger. But Evaña would speak of the Vianas, and of their existence Don Gregorio was most painfully aware. "I know what you mean, Carlos," said Don Gregorio; "though you will not say it plainly to me. You mean that Don Francisco Viana is my equal, that therefore his daughter is the equal of my son, and that he does not degrade himself by marrying such a woman. I deny your premises, and therefore the whole of your argument falls to the ground. By birth Don Francisco is my equal, in everything else he is my inferior; he has himself married a woman not only inferior to him in birth but in race also. His daughter is not the equal of my son, and there is less disgrace in her in their present connection than would come to my son by their marriage." "In their own way they are a most respectable family, from all I can hear," replied Evaña; "and they feel keenly the disgrace which has come upon them." "Bah! what matters it, that family! Bring that man here to see me, Carlos, I will speak to him myself."