“She and I wish it.”
“Fool! Is nothing else in the world to be considered but her and you? Are there not parents; is there not society; is there not a conscience; is there not a God?”
“Because there is society, because there is a conscience, because there is a God,” affirmed Rey gravely, rising to his feet, and pointing with outstretched arm to the heavens, “I say and I repeat that I will marry her.”
“Wretch! arrogant man! And if you would dare to trample every thing under your feet, do you think there are not laws to prevent your violence?”
“Because there are laws, I say and I repeat that I will marry her.”
“You respect nothing!”
“Nothing that is unworthy of respect.”
“And my authority, my will, I—am I nothing?”
“For me your daughter is every thing—the rest is nothing.”
Pepe Rey’s composure was, so to say, the arrogant display of invincible and conscious strength. The blows he gave were hard and crushing in their force, without any thing to mitigate their severity. His words, if the comparison may be allowed, were like a pitiless discharge of artillery.