have liked her to be present at your wedding?"

At these words of Yaquita Joam made a movement which he could not
repress.

"My dear," continued Yaquita, "with Minha, with our two sons, Benito
and Manoel, with you, how I should like to see Brazil, and to journey
down this splendid river, even to the provinces on the seacoast
through which it runs! It seems to me that the separation would be so
much less cruel! As we came back we should revisit our daughter in
her house with her second mother. I would not think of her as gone I
knew not where. I would fancy myself much less a stranger to the
doings of her life."

This time Joam had fixed his eyes on his wife and looked at her for
some time without saying anything.

What ailed him? Why this hesitation to grant a request which was so
just in itself--to say "Yes," when it would give such pleasure to all
who belonged to him? His business affairs could not afford a
sufficient reason. A few weeks of absence would not compromise
matters to such a degree. His manager would be able to take his place
without any hitch in the fazenda. And yet all this time he hesitated.

Yaquita had taken both her husband's hands in hers, and pressed them
tenderly.

"Joam," she said, "it is not a mere whim that I am asking you to
grant. No! For a long time I have thought over the proposition I have
just made to you; and if you consent, it will be the realization of