"Come, now, go to your mamma," she said to the little one.
But he clung with all his might to her.
"It is evident that he loves you only when he is hungry," said Miguel, making fun of her.
Maximina became grieved and even vexed, and tried to take the child from Juana, but he objected and squealed.
"Come now, see if he won't come to me," suggested Miguel.
"Why not?" As soon as his papa spread open his arms, the capricious infant sprang into them.
"Do you see?" he exclaimed, leaping up in triumph.
Then Maximina, full of sorrow and mortification, the more because her husband and Juana laughed so heartily at her defeat, was going to pull him away by main force. Miguel started to run. Maximina, growing more and more nervous and incensed, trying not to cry, ran after him. At last, unable to overtake him, she went into the study. There Miguel shortly after found her standing up, leaning against the mantel-piece, her eyes hidden with one hand, and evidently crying. He went up to her on tiptoe, laid the baby on the rug, and said to him:—
"There now, go and ask forgiveness of your mamma, and tell her what you have just whispered in my ear: that you love her better than any one else in the world."
At the same time he put the child's mouth to his wife's hand, as it hung by her side.