"Come and see us, and I will show you my baby: you will, won't you?"
When husband and wife left the café, they were in a happy frame of mind. Hearing from a distance the noise of the band and voices, Miguel exclaimed:—
"What a jolly wedding this has been! No toasts were given, and no poems were read!"
XXI.
With suitable precautions, that is, first vaguely insinuating the idea, afterwards making it more and more definite, Miguel brought it to his wife's notice that he must go to Galicia for a few days. She received the news with consternation; but perceiving that her husband was annoyed, she made an effort to control herself, and became calm, and finally even quite cheerful. But finding herself, as always after breakfast, seated on her husband's knee, while the "little rascal" was sleeping, and ready to talk about the linen that the traveller would need for his journey, the tears came into her eyes when least expected.
"What a girl you are," exclaimed Miguel, kissing her, "only a few days' separation!"
"I was not crying for that exactly," rejoined Maximina, endeavoring to smile. "But for several days I have been having such melancholy forebodings."
"What forebodings?"
"I imagine that I am not going to live very long."
"Ave María! what a terrible idea! What makes you have such crazy notions?"