responded haughtily, without deigning to look at him, for which reason
he asked her politely for an explanation of her coldness, to which
she replied requesting Senor Pinzon to leave her house, deferring to a
future occasion the explanation which she would require from him of his
perfidious conduct while in it. Don Cayetano arriving at this moment,
words were exchanged between the two gentlemen, as between man and man;
but as we are more interested at present in another matter, we will
leave the Polentinos and the lieutenant-colonel to settle matters
between them as best they can, and proceed to examine the question of
the sources above mentioned.

Let us fix our attention on Maria Remedios, an estimable woman, to whom
it is indispensably necessary to devote a few words. She was a lady, a
real lady--for, notwithstanding her humble origin, the virtues of her
uncle, Senor Don Inocencio, also of low origin, but elevated by his
learning and his estimable qualities, had shed extraordinary lustre over
the whole family.

The love of Remedios for Jacinto was one of the strongest passions of
which the maternal heart is capable. She loved him with delirium; her
son's welfare was her first earthly consideration; she regarded him as
the most perfect type of beauty and talent ever created by God, and to
see him happy and great and powerful she would have given her whole life
and even a part of the life to come. The maternal sentiment is the
only one which, because of its nobility and its sanctity, will admit
of exaggeration; the only one which the delirium of passion does not
debase. Nevertheless it is a singular phenomenon, frequently observed,
that this exaltation of maternal affection, if not accompanied with
absolute purity of heart and with perfect uprightness is apt to become
perverted and transformed into a lamentable frenzy, which may lead, like