"I fear me, Señora," said Evaña, "that is the only course left open to him. This Mauricia is no gauchita, she is a cousin of your own, Señora."
"Cousin! we recognise no such relationship," replied Doña Constancia haughtily. "What are you going to tell my father, Don Carlos?"
"I am going to tell him the simple facts, he will decide for himself whether he will interfere at all in the matter."
"But you will be careful not to mention to him that these Vianas insist upon him marrying the girl?"
"I shall tell him that also, Señora, and shall do my best to prevail upon him to consent to it."
"Don Carlos!" exclaimed Doña Constancia, clasping her hands and looking at him in astonishment.
"I see nothing so extravagant in the idea, Señora. For years you have all been wishing that Don Gregorio would marry, he is old enough to know what sort of a wife will suit him best."
"Pues! do what you think best, but my father, I know, will never give his consent, and we can never receive her."
"That may never be necessary," said Don Roderigo. "Don Gregorio will live on his estancia, it is the life for which he is most fitted."