"Come now; imagine that I am a guest coming this very moment...." (Miguel went to the anteroom and came back again, making low bows). "Señora, at your feet!... How do you do this evening? It is a genuine honor and a great satisfaction to be present at this soirée, where my friend Miguel wants to show everybody how happy he is in his choice.... But he deserves this happiness ... he is an excellent young man; you also, señora, will have little reason to repent. The truth is, I have been anxious to see him married; and though he is to be envied, all of his friends, including myself, wish him greater happiness every day of his life.... (Come, wife, say something.)"
Maximina, standing motionless in the middle of the parlor, listened, with her mouth open and a smile on her lips.
"Answer, wife.... Come now; I see that you will never be a star of society.... Nor is there any reason why you should be," he added gently.
And suddenly, taking her by the waist, he darted with her through the parlor, making a few turns of a waltz.
At that instant the bell rang. Both stopped as though petrified and instantly let go of each other: Miguel went into his study. The servant opened the door, and a young man made his appearance, who proved to be none other than Gómez de la Floresta.
Miguel had forgotten that the reading of his drama was the pretext for the party, and he felt some slight vexation to see him, manuscript in hand; but he received him no less cordially.
The three sat down in the study and talked for a long while, as the poet was far ahead of time.
The next to arrive was Utrilla, the ex-cadet of the military school, whom Miguel had taken pains to invite, not only on account of the friendship that existed between them, but also because of his pity for his blind love for Julita, and the hope that she might at last come to return it. He was in evening dress, the same as Gómez de la Floresta.
Then came in quick succession his cousins Enrique and Serafina, Mendoza, Julita and her mother, with Saavedra, Rosa de té and Merelo y García, the De Ramírez ladies, and Miguel's cousins, Vicente and Carlitos; Asunción and two other young ladies whose names we do not remember, and a few other guests.
What Miguel had foreseen came to pass: Maximina, smiling and blushing, received the people without any of those meaningless and polite phrases which are customary on such occasions; but her naturalness and modesty made a great and very favorable impression on every one. La Señora de Ramírez said to Miguel in an aside:—