CHAPTER
VII
PAULA Little Ada was on the point of completing her elementary courses in the school of Maestra Luisa when her father decided to marry for the second time a woman named Paula Arcilla from the same town of Pandacan. The friends of Paula were beginning to giggle among themselves, and were making fun of her because she was going to marry a widower. Her relatives, however, did not take the then impending marriage as a joke, and on more than one occasion they told Paula to think well beforehand of what she was going to do. The main objection of Paula's family to her marriage with Pedro was not because the latter was a widower, but because, they said that inasmuch ' as the very happiness of the girl was involved, and the truth must be told, in their opinion, Pedro was too dry, serious and self-centered an individual. Did not Paula figure it out for herself that a husband endowed with such an austere character could not make her happy? And that little girl, Ada, did not Paula perchance think that she would be her rival at home, her daily enemy? And seeing her every day, would not Ada think always of her mother whom Panula wanted to supplant? But Paula smiled. Possessing a strong feminine instinct, and a character entirely distinct from that of the diseased Francisca, Paula disarmed her rel atives by her boundless optimism. She wanted to be left alone, and in peace. She had already thought of all these objections, and felt confident 42