"Oh yes. And it is nothing to laugh about, either," she chided, as he smiled incredulously, "I am a bad girl; I am disobedient. Otherwise I would not allow you to speak to me alone like this. You are the first gentleman I have ever been so long in the company with, Senor Antonio."
"Really?"
"Now I will have to do more penance." She sighed sadly, but her eyes were dancing.
"I don't understand this penance affair. What do you do?"
She lifted a fold of her coarse denim dress. "For six months I must wear these garments—no pretty ones. I must not go out in public also, and I have been sent here away from the city for a time to cure my rebellious spirit."
"Those dresses must be hot."
"Oh, very uncomfortable! But, you see, I was bad."
"Not very bad?"
"Indeed. I disobeyed my father, my uncle, everybody." For the first time her eyes grew bright with anger. "But I did not wish to be married."
"Now, I see. They wanted you to marry some fellow you don't like?"