“I know that.  No, you shall not go from your own house.  But allow me to tell you that you are mistaken in your estimate of my cousins’ characters.  I know what influenced you, but you do not know all.  The younger is a good girl, and though she is ugly, she too has succumbed to love.  But the elder, who is ten times uglier, is mad with rage at never having had a lover.  She thought she had made you in love with her, and yet she speaks evil of you.  She reproaches me for having yielded so easily and boasts that she would never have gratified your passion.”

“Say no more, we must punish her; and the younger shall come.”

“I am much obliged to you.”

“Does she know that we love each other?”

“I have never told her, but she has guessed it, and pities me.  She wants me to join her in a devotion to Our Lady de la Soledad, the effect of which would be a complete cure for us both.”

“Then she is in love, too?”

“Yes; and she is unhappy in her love, for it is not returned.  That must be a great grief.”

“I pity her, and yet, with such a face, I do not know any man who would take compassion on her.  The poor girl would do well to leave love alone.  But as to you. . . .”

“Say nothing about me:  my danger is greater than hers.  I am forced to defend myself or to give in, and God knows there are some men whom it is impossible to ward off!  God is my witness that in Holy Week I went to a poor girl with the smallpox, and touched her in the hope of catching it, and so losing my beauty; but God would not have it so, and my confessor blamed me, bidding me to do a penance I had never expected.”

“Tell me what it is?”

“He told me that a handsome face is the index of a handsome soul, and is a gift of God, for which a woman should render thanks continually; that in attempting to destroy this beauty I had sinned, for I had endeavoured to destroy God’s handiwork.  After a good deal of rebuke in this style, he ordered me to put a little rouge on my cheeks whenever I felt myself looking pale.  I had to submit, and I have bought a pot of rouge, but hitherto I have not felt obliged to use it.  Indeed, my father might notice it, and I should not like to tell him that it is done by way of penance.”

“Is your confessor a young man?”

“He is an old man of seventy.”

“Do you tell him all your sins without reserve?”

“Certainly, for the smallest circumstance may be really a great sin.”

“Does he ask you questions?”

“No, for he sees that I am telling him the whole truth.  It is a great trial, but I have to submit to it.”

“Have you had this confessor for long?”

“For two years.  Before him I had a confessor who was quite unbearable.  He asked me questions which made me quite indignant.”

“What questions were these?”

“You must please excuse me telling you.”