Dona Perfecta eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 279 pages of information about Dona Perfecta.

Dona Perfecta eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 279 pages of information about Dona Perfecta.

“I am quite contented here,” responded Pepe.  “I was just now saying to Rosario that I find this city and this house so pleasant that I would like to live and die here.”

Rosario turned very red and the others were silent.  They all sat down in a summer-house, Jacinto hastening to take the seat on the left of the young girl.

“See here, nephew, I have a piece of advice to give you,” said Dona Perfecta, smiling with that expression of kindness that seemed to emanate from her soul, like the aroma from the flower.  “But don’t imagine that I am either reproving you or giving you a lesson—­you are not a child, and you will easily understand what I mean.”

“Scold me, dear aunt, for no doubt I deserve it,” replied Pepe, who was beginning to accustom himself to the kindnesses of his father’s sister.

“No, it is only a piece of advice.  These gentlemen, I am sure, will agree that I am in the right.”

Rosario was listening with her whole soul.

“It is only this,” continued Dona Perfecta, “that when you visit our beautiful cathedral again, you will endeavor to behave with a little more decorum while you are in it.”

“Why, what have I done?”

“It does not surprise me that you are not yourself aware of your fault,” said his aunt, with apparent good humor.  “It is only natural; accustomed as you are to enter athenaeums and clubs, and academies and congresses without any ceremony, you think that you can enter a temple in which the Divine Majesty is in the same manner.”

“But excuse me, senora,” said Pepe gravely, “I entered the cathedral with the greatest decorum.”

“But I am not scolding you, man; I am not scolding you.  If you take it in that way I shall have to remain silent.  Excuse my nephew, gentlemen.  A little carelessness, a little heedlessness on his part is not to be wondered at.  How many years is it since you set foot in a sacred place before?”

“Senora, I assure you——­But, in short, let my religious ideas be what they may, I am in the habit of observing the utmost decorum in church.”

“What I assure you is——­There, if you are going to be offended I won’t go on.  What I assure you is that a great many people noticed it this morning.  The Senores de Gonzalez, Dona Robustiana, Serafinita—­in short, when I tell you that you attracted the attention of the bishop——­His lordship complained to me about it this afternoon when I was at my cousin’s.  He told me that he did not order you to be put out of the church only because you were my nephew.”

Rosario looked anxiously at her cousin, trying to read in his countenance, before he uttered it, the answer he would make to these charges.

“No doubt they mistook me for some one else.”

“No, no! it was you.  But there, don’t get angry!  We are talking here among friends and in confidence.  It was you.  I saw you myself.”

“You saw me!”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Dona Perfecta from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.