One morning when the young Marqués de Peñalta awoke earlier than usual,ñaltaMartayMarí noticing from the window of his room that the sky was clear (contrary to its time-honored custom), he felt an inclination to take a walk in the environs of the town, and making the thought father to the act, he hastily dressed and went down into the street in search of pure air; but before he left the inner town, as he was passing the Elorza mansion, he accidentally met Maria going to church with her maid. His heart gave a leap, and, somewhat agitated, he stopped to salute her. The girl met him with that gay, blithesome gesture, full at once of mischievousness and candor which was peculiar to her nature, and therefore impossible to overcome by any force.
"You have got up early--to hear mass, I suppose?"
"Oh no," replied Ricardo with a smile; "I was going to take a walk in the country, as it must be very lovely now."
"Very well; but to-day you must not go to walk: I claim you, and am going to take you to mass," said the girl in a tone of resolution, and with a decidedly adorable inflection of voice; and suiting the action to the word, she took him by the hand and led him captive this way for a number of feet.
Lucky Ricardo! what better could he desire at that moment than to see himself captured in such a lovely way? He could not say a word during the first few moments. Emotion overmastered him, and a tear slid down his honest, manly face.
"Oh, Maria, if you knew how happy you make me!" he said to her in a low, trembling voice. "If you wanted to take me with you, where would I not go? You cannot comprehend how I long for you to speak with me, to smile on me, to lead me. I try eagerly to find ways to please you, and I don't find them. Tell me how I can cause you any pleasure, how I can melt the ice which is destroying our love, and I will try to do it, even if it should cost me my life. If I did not love you more than any other being in this world, and also as the blessed remembrance of my mother, how long ago I should have left you forever!... But my love is of such a nature, it is so strong, so eager, so absorbing, that it has succeeded in disarming all my pride ... and I fear that it has got the better of my dignity," he added in a low tone.