"Julia, your tila is getting cold," said Maximina, laying her hand on the girl's shoulder.
Julia uttered a cry, and covered the paper with her hands.
Maximina stepped back in consternation.
"Excuse me; dear, you took me so by surprise," said Julia, smiling and very rosy.
"I am the one to ask pardon for having come in without knocking.... I did not think.... Go on, go on...." she added, with a mischievous smile that signified: "I know whom the letter is for!"
How far the innocent young woman was from suspecting the truth!
After she left the room, Julia finished her letter: ...
"Try to pacify mamma, and Miguel when he comes back. I think that in the end all will be satisfactorily arranged. Alfonso, though he is a little cold, is a perfect gentleman. Pardon and love your sister who takes her farewell of you alone.—Julia."
Don Alfonso had charged her again and again, and with great forethought, not for anything in the world to leave a written letter giving an intimation of where she was going. But by an impulse of her heart,—one of the many that are inexplicable,—it occurred to her to write to her sister-in-law, in whom she had perfect confidence.
"I am going now," she said, putting on a hat which had a thick veil to let down over her eyes. "It is dinner time already, and mamma will be expecting me. Just think! I have not seen her since last evening. I shall be back here again at ten o'clock."