“Never mind. Let me have it now.”
“Mercedes has known, ever since we have had any knowledge of Orizaba, that I hated him. In a word, my hatred of him has arisen chiefly because of his determined court paid to her. I have known all along that he was totally unworthy of her, but——”
“Then why did you not put a stop to his attentions at once?”
“Because Mercedes would not permit it.”
“Ah!”
“For some reason she chose to defend him always—that is, whenever I attacked him.”
“Do you mean by that, that she favored his suit?”
“No; I do not mean that, for that is what she did not do. I have never thought that she favored him, and yet on more than one occasion she has constituted herself a sort of quasi protectress over him whenever we have had our accustomed three-cornered fight at the home concerning him.”
“What do you mean by accustomed three-cornered fight?”
“I refer to wordy battles which often took place among my mother, my sister, and myself concerning Orizaba. These were usually begun in raillery, but always ended in bitter words.”