“Witnesses? To what? Oh! I do not believe they can prove anything in spite of his malice. But they can calumniate you, disgrace you, drag your name and character in the mire; and you may lose your child when she has reached the age prescribed by law. If we fly we shall only be helping them to prove their case, and then you would be sure to lose the child.”
“But if we went a long way off?”
“Do not take a panic. Do not think of flight, which would condemn you unheard. While he brings an action against you, you must invoke the intervention of the law, to prevent him from exercising his paternal authority, on the ground of his extravagance, of misappropriation of moneys, forgery—a whole catalogue of crimes that it will be easy to prove if your father will support you.”
“I see what you mean. But you are under a delusion. You do not know the worst.”
“What is that?”
“You think, no doubt, that my father warmly took my part?”
“Of course.”
“But you are mistaken. Alas for me—and for you, too, dear friend of my soul—we are alone and undefended; everything, every one, is against us: religion, laws, relations—the good and the evil alike—the whole world. When the great Gustavo enlarged on the legal advantage his client had over me I flew into a rage—still, I controlled myself to say that Federico could not insist on exercising paternal authority, and that if he was determined on a quarrel I would accuse him of the things you know of. My father listened to all this very calmly; I saw him ready to yield to all sorts of odious compromises.... He stuttered and stammered, and made speeches that turned my heart cold: ‘My daughter will be reasonable—we must all make some sacrifice—I, if Federico will meet me half way—well, we must see—perhaps we can do everything he wishes—the first point is to avoid a scandal.’—And this point of avoiding a scandal, which he recurred to at least twenty times, showed me that he is not prepared to defend me as I should wish.—A compromise! And with what a man! Good God! Then he talked of coming to terms with Federico’s uncles, two very worthy men whom you know; one is a judge in the supreme court and the other president of the examining body—What will come of it all? What do you think of it—what can you say to it?”