“She is not, then, to your taste; and you think, perhaps, that I ought to have advised with you?”
“No, sir, not with me—I am of small account; but with some one that has more knowledge and judgment than I.”
“So, then, it appears to you,” said Juan, with repressed ire, “that your father needs counsel?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Lucas calmly, “when he has a young daughter, and is going to give her a step-mother.”
“For fear he might give her one that would eat her up, like the Cancon?”[9]
“No, sir, no; we understand now that people are not swallowed like sugared anises.”
“Or make her work, being herself industrious, and not willing to sit hand upon hand like a notary’s wife?”
“It is not that, sir; Lucia is not afraid of work. She knows that work is the honor of the poor.”
“Or, perhaps, keep her at home like a chained dog?”
“No, sir; I am not thinking of that; for my sister, though brought up without a mother, is modest, and not a girl to be seen at the street door or with a hole in her stocking. She is used to the shade, but—”