"Come now, that is the great country for Maximina," said Miguel. "She is too modest to go alone to mass, and yet the church is only a step away."
The young wife smiled, in embarrassment.
"Well, now, yesterday I went with Juana to the Calle de Postas to buy some drawers."
"There you have a word that you could not speak in England before people."
"Madre! and when you buy them, what do you call for?"
"They speak it to the clerk as a confessional secret," suggested Miguel.
"Don't you believe him," replied Saavedra, laughing. "For those ladies' clerks in shops are not 'people.'"
Meanwhile, he was trying to get her interested in his own private affairs, asking her advice, and often following it.
"The truth is, that in respect of good advice I do not miss my mother. You take her place divinely, Maximina. I announce myself your adopted son, though I am old enough to be your father."
"But you are not as obedient as I should like."