“I thought god-mother was coming,” she said. “But I was mistaken; they are having a great chat.”
She resumed her seat beside the student, and three or four minutes passed without either speaking. The girl waited, surprised that her lover should have nothing to say to her; but the young man, ransack his brain as he would, could not find a word to say. All he felt was a wild desire to laugh, and to keep from doing so he covered his mouth with his handkerchief. His sweetheart, looking at the handkerchief, observed the richly-embroidered initial, and asked quickly:
“What letter is that?”
“R. My name is Rogelio.”
“I was going to ask you what your name was. How shall I address your letters? Señor Don Rogelio——”
“Pardiñas.”
“Pardiñas, Pardiñas, Pardiñas.” The girl repeated the name several times to herself as if afraid of forgetting it, and then, looking the student straight in the face, she said to him, in solemn accents:
“Are we to be married?”
Here Rogelio could no longer restrain his hysterical inclination to laugh. He laughed with his mouth, with his eyes, with his whole body, holding his sides, that ached with the violence of his laughter; and throwing himself back in his chair, he sighed:
“Ah, I shall die! I shall die!”