“What!” cried the director; “are you ill, señora? Since when? it is but a moment since I saw you very joyous!”
Maria was about to reply, but she dropped her eyes, and could not open her lips. Pepe’s look fascinated her.
“Why not avow the truth?” he said, without losing any of his calmness. “Why not say it is impossible for you to sing? would it be a great crime? Are you a slave, that they can oblige you to do more than you can?”
The public was impatient, the director knew not what to do. The authorities sent to demand the cause of the delay, and while the director recounted the incident which had occurred, Pepe Vera, who had approached Maria as if to offer his attentions, seized her arm as if he would break it, and said to her in a firm voice—
“Caramba! is it not enough to tell you I do not wish it?”
Maria must decide. When she was in her room with Pepe her anger broke out.
“You are an insolent, an infamous fellow,” she cried, suffocated with fury. “What right have you to treat me thus?”
“I love you.”
“Cursed be your love!”
Pepe began to laugh.