The district attorney was somewhat crushed, but at length he went on with his remarks, without ceasing the pseudo-smile which afflicted his face.
"Love being, for the reason above given, the most powerful, not to say the only, motive of a woman's life, there is nothing wonderful in the supposition that a young lady like you may find herself agitated by this omnipotent feeling, and paying tribute to what constitutes an irrecusable law of life. You may now see how I was not out of the way when I affirmed that sometimes it is necessary for you to give your heart a tonic or—and this is the same thing—alleviate it of some too grievous impression."
"O my![45] what a bore!" said the Señorita de Morí in a whisper; but she replied aloud, "Why, you are absolutely mistaken, Isidorito; nothing grieves me or disturbs me at present!"
"Allow me to doubt it."
"You are welcome to doubt it; but I assure you that I have the best reason for knowing."
"Certainly, according to all logic, although you may declare the contrary, yet there is no possibility of sustaining such an opinion; not only reason and good sense oppose it, but from the most superficial observation of the facts it results, first, that love is a natural and constant sentiment in young ladies; second, that you have no reasons for escaping from it; and third, that the fact of sleeping little and uneasily makes the supposition that you are in love a very reasonable one."
The Señorita de Morí shrugged her shoulders, made a scornful grimace with her lips, and without deigning to reply, resumed her conversation with her friend Rosario.
Isidorito had triumphed over his opponent as usual; for always the woman with whom he was conversing was in his eyes his opponent, and he believed in the necessity of involving her in the meshes of his logic, and of getting her close in his grasp, until he subdued her like a rebellious rival in the law. Thus he expected to win the admiration and respect of the feminine sex. But the feminine sex (be it said to its dishonor) not only did not admire Isidorito for his belligerent logic, for his sedateness, and for his vast legal knowledge, but it looked upon him with marked disfavor, and avoided his conversation as though it were a disgusting clatter. The Señorita de Morí, with whom he had carried on the most pugnacious argument on the nature of love and friendship, the sweets of remembrance, the bitternesses of forgetfulness, sympathy, and all else relating to the heart, in which he always came out instantly victorious, had learned to hate him like death. Consequently our wise youth was really more than a hundred leagues from the lovely heiress's three thousand duros income, while he believed that he could touch them with his finger-tips. His never-failing sedateness, his self-possessed and serene eloquence, his long-tailed coats, his ideas of order, and his legal diction had aroused against him a prejudice as cruel as it was unjustified.
IN THE DE CIUDAD FALÚA.
"Maria, Julia, Consuelo, just see how lovely the water feels when you put your hand in!"