"Only one? I would like you to ask me five hundred, and that I might grant them!"
"If I might ... if you would let me be married in one of my own dresses...."
The young man remained for a moment lost in amazement: then he asked sadly:—
"Don't you wish to be married in the dress that I brought you?"
"It would be very mortifying to me!"
"Besides, it is the fashion to be married in a white dress; especially for maidens like you!"
"Here it is not the fashion.... I should be mortified to death!"
Miguel tried to persuade her, but in vain. After exhausting his arguments, which were not very varied, he was anxious to come to a settlement of the difficulty. But Doña Rosalía had noticed something, and lifting her head, she asked:—
"What does this mean? You were not quarrelling, I hope?"
"Nothing, Doña Rosalía; Maximina does not wish to be married in the white dress,—because it would mortify her."