"If you are ignorant of the Church's law," he said severely, "you should not talk as if you knew it."
She knew she had not so talked, but she made no attempt to excuse herself.
"It is," she said quietly, "quite easy to find out. The priest at Maxwell would tell you immediately."
She saw that her father, though still frowning heavily, was not entirely disregardful of her suggestion.
"Father," she went on in a low gentle tone, "I beg your pardon if, being altogether surprised, I spoke suddenly, and seemed disrespectful."
"You were very disrespectful," he said, with stiff resentment.
Mariquita's large grave eyes were full of tears, but he did not notice them, and would have been unmoved if he had seen them. It was difficult for her to keep them from overflowing, and more difficult to go on with what she wished to say.
"You know," she said, "that there are things which the Church does not allow except upon conditions, but does allow on conditions—"
"What things?"
"For instance, marriage with a person who is not a Catholic—"