Clarence clenched his hands as if he would like to throttle all bad luck in general, and this one in particular, looked haggard, but remained silent. George continued:
“Spanish girls are trained to strict filial obedience, and it is a good thing when not carried too far. Now, Mercedes made to her mother some very foolish promise, and if her heart was to break into little pieces she would not swerve—not she—though she be fully aware that her happiness would be wrecked for ever, she would not disobey her mother.”
“But is it alone her mother's wishes? In obeying her mother, does she not follow her own inclination?”
George laughed, saying: “She must be a strange girl, indeed, if she weeps so bitterly and is so unhappy to follow her inclination.”
“Oh, if I only could think that! Are you sure?”
“Why did Doña Josefa wish to send her away? Only for the hope that she might get over her love for you. Mercedes is not yet eighteen, and, being so young, her mother thought that by sending her away from you and yours, she might forget you. Only such hope as that could have prevailed upon Doña Josefa to part with her baby. Spanish mothers will never let a daughter go out of the maternal sight until they are married; but for the fear that Mercita's attachment to you might become incurable if not effaced early, the mother was ready to sacrifice her feelings. For it was a terrible sacrifice, it was like pulling her heart strings to send her baby off.”
“Oh, how she must hate me then to have such strong objections to me,” said Clarence, sadly.
“No, she does not hate you”—and George hesitated.
“Yes, I know she thinks I have done something wrong or dishonorable, but what that is, I have not the slightest idea.”
“Excuse me for saying so, but I think it was a mistake not to tell her—and Mercedes also—that you bought the land you occupy. Doña Josefa cannot think it is honorable to take up land as your father did. She cannot understand how any law of Congress can authorize a man to take the property of another against his will and without paying for it.”