"Do you know what I am thinking, Julita?"
"No; what?"
"That I am greatly delighted with this way of living with you!"
"But I am not," replied the young girl, dryly.
"Why, what objection do you have to it?"
"I object to living in a state of mortal sin; I wish to ask mamma's pardon and to be married to you."
"Now the very thing that I enjoy most is living in this extra-legal way. We are two birds flown from the nest and winging our flight through the air. How jolly it is to be so alone and so free! Could we possibly be happier because a dirty and ignorant priest had jabbered a few Latin words before us?"
Julita, on hearing this and noticing the somewhat mocking tone in which Don Alfonso spoke, felt a cold chill run down her back, and she dropped her arms which she had raised to arrange her hair. She stood a moment or two in suspense, and then turning her pale face toward him, she said deliberately, in an unnatural voice:—
"It seems to me that I could not have heard such coarse and vile words come from your mouth."
"Why do you call them vile, child? All that I did was to give you my opinion without taking the trouble to consider whether it was good or bad," replied the caballero laughing.