"Yes, dear."
"Will you come to-morrow also, and every other day?"
"Yes, loveliest, I ask nothing better."
"You don't know how you rejoice me, Ricardo!"
"Truly?"
"Yes, I love you dearly, but I want you to be good and religious, because, before everything else we ought to think of our salvation, and make it our richest possession in this world."
The young man at that moment felt his heart melt within him, as he drank in the drops of affection which his sweetheart let fall upon his lips. There is nothing that can so quickly change our most deeply rooted ideas and our firmest judgments as the voice of the woman whom we love. Ricardo was a lukewarm believer, like most men of our day, and he detested exaggerations, and looked with decided repugnance upon religious practices. Accordingly then, by the work of enchantment, that is, by the work of that sweet voice and those still sweeter eyes, which gazed upon him with eloquent expression, he was stripped of his anti-clerical opinions, and was transformed into a decided champion of the altar and a fervid devotee of the saints, male and female, of the celestial court. He took delight in thinking that what his betrothed was doing was, after all, not blameworthy; that her piety and mysticism were the reflection of a noble and lofty spirit; that this same piety was the sweet pledge of her conjugal happiness, since it would cause her to refrain from the vanities to which other women after marriage devote themselves; that there was nothing strange in the poor girl desiring her betrothed to be a believer and devout, when her ideas about eternal salvation were taken into consideration, and that in this regard he had done very wrong to oppose her so obstinately, striking her in the very heart of her sensitive and admirable faith; finally he came to the conclusion that he was a barbarian, incapable of enjoying the sacraments or of understanding the adorable mysteries which a heart consecrated to God might take in, and that Maria was a saint who had borne with him with too much patience. Moved, partly by this thought, and infinitely more by the emotion caused by his sweetheart's unexpected favor, he replied with accents of tenderness:—
"Listen Maria.... You know well that I am not, and have never been an unbeliever.... It is true I have looked with a certain coolness on religious practices, but you ought to know just as well that this is a common fault among young men, and particularly among the military.... As for the rest, I tell you with all the sincerity of my soul, I have never abandoned the faith which my sainted mother taught me in childhood.... Even now ring in my ears her counsels, and still I can repeat without mistake, the multitude of prayers which she made me say on my knees on the bed, when I retired.... That cannot be forgotten, Maria.... It would be infamous if one forgot it! To-day the same counsels are repeated by lips that I worship.... How could you think that a religion always inculcated by the beings whom I have most loved and respected in my life, should not be sweet!... Yes, my loveliest, I am religious by birth and by conviction, and I hope to be still more fervently so by your aid.... Tell me what you desire me to do in this regard, and I will do it.... Tell me what thoughts you wish me to think, and I will think them!... I am all yours, body and soul...."
"Thus, thus I love you.... But you must not be religious for the sake of my love, for then it has no merit in it, but for the sake of God. The ties which are made in this world,—what are they worth in comparison with that existing eternally between the Creator and his creatures? If you love me much, love me in God and for God, as I love you. In any other way it is a sin to fix our attention and our love on any creature."
Ricardo's emotion and ardor received from these words a dash of cold water, but they were strong enough to persist without diminution, and they still kept control of his heart until they reached the portico of the church. Then Maria, taking the holy water, and offering it to him with the tips of her fingers, said:—