"I thought so; when a book does not please me nowadays, I always say to myself: 'How fine it must be!'"
She said these words with such ingenuousness and such a graceful resignation that her husband, laughing heartily, took her head between his hands and kissed her enthusiastically.
The young wife, encouraged by this caress, joyfully began to read another chapter.
She must have been about half through it, when she suddenly paused and uttered a slight ay! in such a peculiar intonation that Miguel was surprised; he started up and could see that his wife's face was flushed and full of an almost mystic joy.
"What is the matter?"
"I just felt ... as though something ..."
"What was it?" he asked, although he knew perfectly well what it was.
"As if a little, wee foot gently touched me."
"That is nothing strange."
Maximina did not care to read more; she laid the book on a chair and knelt down in front of her husband: they began to talk eagerly about their child.