"Lolita, retire to your chamber!" Doña Catalina exclaimed.
The girl did so, gladly. Don Carlos and his wife hurried across the room and sat down beside Don Diego.
"I fear you do not understand women, my friend," Don Carlos said. "Never must you take a woman's answer for the last. She always may change her mind. A woman likes to keep a man dangling, likes to make him blow cold with fear and hot with anticipation. Let her have her moods, my friend. In the end, I am sure, you shall have your way."
"It is beyond me!" Don Diego cried. "What shall I do now! I told her I would give her all her heart desired."
"Her heart desires love, I suppose," Doña Catalina said, out of the wealth of her woman's wisdom.
"But certainly I shall love and cherish her. Does not a man promise that in the ceremony? Would a Vega break his word regarding such a thing?"
"Just a little courtship," Don Carlos urged.
"But it is such a nuisance!"
"A few soft words, a pressure of the hand now and then, a sigh or two, a languishing look from the eyes—"
"Nonsense!"