Excerpt: ...Joaquin's house, Arrequi's, and a few in the Ancho, there is nothing much to see." "Now, of course, it can't amount to anything . but before." Maximina looked at him in surprise. "It was formerly not as good as now; the best houses were built about five or six years ago." "Before, it was worth infinitely more, because you were there." "Mercy what difference did it make whether I were there or not?" exclaimed Maximina, innocently. "Because here or there, or wherever you happened to be," replied the caballero, piqued by the young matron's ingenuous indifference, so absolutely free from coquetry, "you would always be something so precious as to attract every one's attention. And what makes you more precious still, and more worthy of admiration, is that you have not the remotest idea of your value: you are a beautiful, fresh, fragrant, aromatic flower, which is absolutely unconscious of itself." Maximina had not heard Don Alfonso's last words, perceiving that her husband had just given Filomena an intense look