“My daughter, do you not see that I must withdraw my permission to your marriage now?”
“Will you tell that to Clarence?” asked Mercedes, frightened.
“Certainly, as soon as I see him.”
“And break our engagement?” she asked, with a voice scarcely audible.
“Certainly. What else, my daughter?”
“I want to go to my room,” she said, slowly turning to go back, walking as if in a dream.
George put his arm around her shoulder, and walked with her.
“Don't be discouraged, my dear humanita. Doña Josefa is justly indignant now, but her anger will pass off, and she will see how absurd it will be to punish you and Clarence for the sins of his ill-tempered, foolish father. The only thing now is to drop the matter. ‘Least said, sooner mended,’ applies to this case exactly.”
“I wish papa were here. He don't think as mamma does. If mamma sees Clarence first, she will send him away. Oh! that will be awful to me.”
“We will keep your mamma at our house until Don Mariano returns. Tano will see Clarence first.”