There was not a doubt but that the idea of the pony had been a happy one, suggested as it was by experience, and infinitely superior to that commonplace artifice of taking a sweetheart, which had suggested itself to the innocent mind of Rogelio as a sovereign remedy against his incipient love-sickness. His mother did not need now to ask him to accompany her on her expeditions or to invent excuses to get him out of the house. Of his own accord the young man spent his time between his house and the stall of his favorite. The weather was now growing milder. The closing days of March, notwithstanding the bad reputation of that variable month, were clear, calm, and pleasant, and every afternoon, at three o’clock, Rogelio rode out to enjoy the first warm airs of spring, now alone, again with some friend, and again with the riding-master, to return home at dusk healthily tired, intoxicated with the pure air, strengthened and exhilarated, and his mind free from enervating thoughts. Between this vein of activity which his mother had discovered, and study no longer to be avoided, as the examinations were approaching with alarming swiftness, how or when could he find time to devote to Esclavita?
His mother did not on this account relax her vigilance, however, or abandon her well-considered plan of defense. One day Don Gaspar Febrero, having gone somewhat earlier than usual to Doña Aurora’s, found himself alone with her, and, according to his custom, turned the conversation on Esclavita, praising her so extravagantly that his companion at last began to grow impatient.
“Now that you speak of the girl,” she said, when the old man allowed her to get in a word, “I wish to say something to you about her. But promise me first that you will answer me with the frankness due to our long-standing friendship.”
“Can you doubt it? Why of course I shall, my dear Aurora. In what way can I serve you?”
“You shall hear. It is something that I have been thinking of sitting here alone in the mornings when the boy is at college. As you will be very lonely, no doubt, when Felisa starts on her long voyage to the Philippines, I have thought—so that you might not miss so greatly the attentions to which you have been accustomed—what do you think?”
“Let us hear—let us hear. Since the idea is yours—you always reason very judiciously, my dear friend——”
“As you have often told me that you thought Esclavita so excellent a servant——”
The sprightly old man made a quick movement of delighted surprise, settled his spectacles on his nose, and eagerly and tremulously, in disjointed phrases, exclaimed:
“My dear friend! my dear friend! what is it you are saying? what is it you are saying? Have you considered well before speaking? To part with that treasure! that treasure! You overwhelm me with this proof of your goodness. Yes, indeed, but in conscience no, I cannot accept. Now I see of what friendship is capable, Aurora! No, it would be too selfish on my part. You have not thought well over the matter. Are you speaking in earnest? in earnest?”
Señora de Pardiñas felt the pricking of remorse at this spontaneous effusion of gratitude, and hastened to add: