"
"Do you think that is quite fair to her? If she loves Ramon
Alfarez---"
Once again Garavel's brows signalled surprise. "Ah, you know?"
"Yes, sir. I was about to say, if she really loves him, I can't
make any difference; but suppose she should care for me?"
"Again it could make no difference, once she had married Ramon.
But she is too young to know her own mind. These young girls are
impressionable, romantic, foolish. I can see no object in
deliberately courting trouble. Can you? In affairs of the heart it
is well to use judgment and caution--qualities which come only
with age. Youth is headstrong and blinded by dreams, hence it is
better that marriage should be arranged by older persons."
"Exactly! That's why I want you to arrange mine." The banker
smiled in spite of himself, for he was not without a sense of
humor, and the young man's sincerity was winning.
"It is out of the question," he said; "useless to discuss.
Forgetting for the moment all other considerations, there is an
obstacle to your marriage into a Spanish family, which you do not
stop to consider--one which might well prove insurmountable. I
speak of religion."
"No trouble there, sir."
"You are, then, a Catholic?"
"It was my mother's faith, and I was brought up in it until she
died.
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