At this point there was smothered laughter in the audience: "Antonia! Antonia!" said everybody, grinning and nudging. "That's just the way Antonia left Enrique! I always thought the Devil was in it!" remarked one of the women.
But Laura had pangs of conscience about poor Arcadio. Lucifer insinuated that Arcadio was secretly in love with another, and that settled it.
"So that thou mayst not be troubled," Laura said calmly, "and, so that I may be free from him, I shall even watch for an opportunity to kill him."
This was a shock, even to Lucifer. He suggested that it would be better to make Arcadio feel the pangs of jealousy, and in an exultant aside remarked with satisfaction that "her feet are already in the direct pathway to Hell."
The women, apparently, felt a good deal of satisfaction at this. They nodded virtuously to one another. But one young girl leaned over to another, and, sighing, said:
"Ah! But it must be wonderful to love like that!"
Arcadio returned, to be reproached by Laura with his poverty. He was accompanied by Bato, a combination of Iago and Autolycus, who attended the dialogue between the shepherd and his wife with ironical asides. By means of the jeweled ring that Lucifer had given Laura, Arcadio's suspicions were aroused, and, when Laura had left him in haughty insolence, he gave vent to his feelings:
"Just when I was happy in her fidelity, she with cruel reproaches embitters my heart! What shall I do with myself?"
"Look for a new mate," said Bato.
That being rejected, Bato gave the following modest prescription for settling the difficulty: