This question obliged Yaquita to enter on the other matter which she
had at heart. She did not do so, however, without some hesitation,
which was quite intelligible.

"Joam," said she, after a moment's silence, "listen to me. Regarding
this wedding, I have got a proposal which I hope you will approve of.
Two or three times during the last twenty years I have asked you to
take me and my daughter to the provinces of the Lower Amazon, and to
Para, where we have never been. The cares of the fazenda, the works
which have required your presence, have not allowed you to grant our
request. To absent yourself even for a few days would then have
injured your business. But now everything has been successful beyond
your dreams, and if the hour of repose has not yet come for you, you
can at least for a few weeks get away from your work."

Joam Garral did not answer, but Yaquita felt his hand tremble in
hers, as though under the shock of some sorrowful recollection. At
the same time a half-smile came to her husband's lips--a mute
invitation for her to finish what she had begun.

"Joam," she continued, "here is an occasion which we shall never see
again in this life. Minha is going to be married away from us, and is
going to leave us! It is the first sorrow which our daughter has
caused us, and my heart quails when I think of the separation which
is so near! But I should be content if I could accompany her to
Belem! Does it not seem right to you, even in other respects that we
should know her husband's mother, who is to replace me, and to whom
we are about to entrust her? Added to this, Minha does not wish to
grieve Madame Valdez by getting married at a distance from her. When
we were married, Joam, if your mother had been alive, would you not