Miguel was dumfounded, and could not forbear a gesture of disgust. This man knew what sort of a woman la generala Bembo was; he was perfectly aware of the relations which he himself had maintained with her. And he had the heart to make her his wife! For several minutes he remained without having a word to say, a thing that had not often happened to him in his life before; then he murmured:—
"Very good, very good, I congratulate you."
"As soon as her year of mourning is over, which will be within five months, we shall be married. She is a very agreeable woman.... Now that I have become intimately acquainted with her, I am persuaded that all the gossip about her is pure fiction; the poor lady is the victim of a few fools who, out of disappointed jealousy, have given her a bad name."
Miguel's eyes flashed angrily; he imagined that these words were directed against him, and he had a ferocious sarcasm on the tip of his tongue; but he succeeded in suppressing it, feeling that the situation in which his friend was putting himself was some excuse for him.
"And if you did not think so you would do very wrong to marry her.... I have heard it said that Lucía has a snug little fortune; is that so?" he added, allowing it to be clearly seen what were, in his opinion, the motives of such a marriage.
Mendoza, though rather obtuse, perceived it, and replied angrily:—
"I don't know, I'm sure.... I met Lucía at Borell's, and from the very first I was delighted with her. She is so refined and so full of noble sentiments. The poor woman was obliged to marry a man old enough to be her father; it would not have been strange if she had gone astray; nevertheless, she succeeded in preserving her...."
"Don Pablo must have had a pretty good thing in America, besides a high rent for his house," said Miguel, not heeding Mendoza's boasts.
"La Señora de Borell can say that it was she who made this match. You can't imagine how much she loves Lucía, and what a high opinion she has of her."
"It is said that Don Pablo's fortune has been greatly diminished in these last few years; but as more came in from America than was spent in Spain there ought to be a good income, and half of it belongs to Lucía in her own right. On the other hand, her children are young, and the income of the whole estate must suffice for them for many years."