"Don't chase me any more; I will tie the cravat, but I won't promise to do it well."
"It is enough if you do it; it is a punishment which I impose upon you."
Laughing, though her hands trembled a little, she arranged the tie.
"What is that you have hanging there?" she asked, bending her head so as to examine a trinket which her cousin wore on his watch-chain.
"A gold heart.... Just like mine!"
And as he said that he bent over and imprinted a kiss on the girl's neck.
Julia straightened herself up as though a pin had pricked her, flushed deeply, and giving him a severe look, said in a muffled voice:—
"I assure you that I do not wish you to do such a thing again!"
Saavedra looked at her with mischievous, mirth-provoking eyes, and not paying any attention to her anger, went on calmly talking to her. Julia, uncertain what course to take, replied gravely to his questions, and did not look at him. Finally his perfect calmness and confidence had their effect upon her, and in a little while she was as gay as ever.
Their relations continued on this friendly footing for a number of days, until suddenly Julia for some occult reason began to grow sober and melancholy. Some afternoons, instead of going to the parlor to talk with the visitor, she left him alone with her mother; if she met him in the corridor, she would give him a serious and furtive glance, and let him pass without a word; sometimes when he addressed her, she would not answer, pretending not to hear him; at other times, if she happened to go into the library, and found him there reading a newspaper, she would turn back in all haste.