It seemed impossible that from these Lunas, so quiet and steady, should have sprung a girl with sufficient pluck to run away to Madrid, where she had never been before, to join a man, without fear of God or of her own people.

To whom could I liken the unhappy child?
To her uncle, to Gabriel who passed for a saint, but who, nevertheless, after fighting like a wolf, wandered all over the world just like a gipsy." Gabriel made no protest at the conception his aunt had formed of his past.
"And after her flight?
What did you know about the child ?" "At first a good deal, but latterly not a word.

The two were living in Madrid together, peacefully and quietly, away from the world, as though they were man and wife.

This lasted for a good while, and I, hearing about it, began to wonder if I had not been mistaken, and that the man we had blamed so much had repented and would end by marrying Sagrario.

But at the end of the year everything was ended; he grew tired, and the family intervened, in order that the escapade should not cut short the career they had marked out for the young man.