"What is the matter? Do you feel ill?" she asked.
"No. What makes you ask? What do you see in me that is strange?" she demanded, full of alarm.
"Nothing, nothing! don't be disturbed. You are a trifle paler than usual, and there are circles under your eyes, nothing more."
"Oh, I think that I am a little nervous to-day."
Maximina smiled good-naturedly, supposing that she might have had some falling out with her lover, and so she ordered some tila to be made for her.
In spite of the deep antipathy which she felt for Don Alfonso and the strong reasons that she had for considering him a miscreant, she saw that Julita was so desperately in love with him that she could not bring herself to say a word against him.
As the afternoon wore on, her restlessness increased. The youngest offshoot of the race of the Riveras was many times on the point of suffering in some slight degree in consequence of his noble aunt's nervous condition. She hugged him to her heart tighter than was necessary; she tossed him up into the air and caught him again; she gave him hundreds of kisses on the same spot in his face until it burned brighter than a coal, and even—horrible thing—bit his nose. There is no need of saying that the illustrious baby, swelling with indignation, protested against such treatment.
The young girl likewise showed herself more tenderly affectionate toward Maximina than usual.
"Maximina, how good you are! how good you are!"
And she almost squeezed her to death in her arms.