Aunt Isabel came to tear her away from her sorrow since she was being asked for by some friends and by the Captain-General, who wished to talk with her.
“Aunt, tell them that I’m ill,” begged the frightened girl. “They’re going to make me play on the piano and sing.”
“Your father has promised. Are you going to put your father in a bad light?”
Maria Clara rose, looked at her aunt, and threw back her shapely arms, murmuring, “Oh, if I only had—”
But without concluding the phrase she began to make herself ready for presentation.
Chapter XXXVII
His Excellency
“I Want to talk with that young man,” said his Excellency to an aide. “He has aroused all my interest.”
“They have already gone to look for him, General. But here is a young man from Manila who insists on being introduced. We told him that your Excellency had no time for interviews, that you had not come to give audiences, but to see the town and the procession, and he answered that your Excellency always has time to dispense justice—”