CHAPTER XX DON DIEGO SHOWS INTEREST
The threatened rain did not come that day, nor that night, and the following morning found the sun shining brightly, and the sky blue, and the scent of blossoms in the air.
Soon after the morning meal, the Pulido carreta was driven to the front of the house by Don Diego's servants, and Don Carlos and his wife and daughter prepared to depart for their own hacienda.
"It desolates me," Don Diego said at the door, "that there can be no match between the señorita and myself. What shall I say to my father?"
"Do not give up hope, caballero," Don Carlos advised him. "Perhaps when we are home again, and Lolita contrasts our humble abode with your magnificence here, she will change her mind. A woman changes her mind, caballero, as often as she does the method of doing her hair."
"I had thought all would be arranged before now," Don Diego said. "You think there is still hope?"
"I trust so," Don Carlos said, but he doubted it, remembering the look that had been in the señorita's face. However, he intended having a serious talk with her once they were home, and possibly might decide to insist on obedience even in this matter of taking a mate.
So the usual courtesies were paid, and then the lumbering carreta was driven away, and Don Diego Vega turned back into his house with his head hanging upon his breast, as it always hung when he did himself the trouble to think.