He bribed all the household, he gave and offered gifts and presents to my parents; every day was like a holiday or a merry-making in our street; by night no one could sleep for the music; the love letters that used to come to my hand, no one knew how, were innumerable, full of tender pleadings and pledges, containing more promises and oaths than there were letters in them; all which not only did not soften me, but hardened my heart against him, as if he had been my mortal enemy, and as if everything he did to make me yield were done with the opposite intention. Not that the high-bred bearing of Don Fernando was disagreeable to me, or that I found his importunities wearisome; for it gave me a certain sort of satisfaction to find myself so sought and prized by a gentleman of such distinction, and I was not displeased at seeing my praises in his letters (for however ugly we women may be, it seems to me it always pleases us to hear ourselves called beautiful) but that my own sense of right was opposed to all this, as well as the repeated advice of my parents, who now very plainly perceived Don Fernando's purpose, for he cared very little if all the world knew it.
Los billetes que, sin saber cómo, a mis manos venían, eran infinitos, llenos de enamoradas razones y ofrecimientos, con menos letras que promesas y juramentos. Todo lo cual no sólo no me ablandaba, pero me endurecía de manera como si fuera mi mortal enemigo, y que todas las obras que para reducirme a su voluntad hacía, las hiciera para el efeto contrario; no porque a mí me pareciese mal la gentileza de don Fernando, ni que tuviese a demasía sus solicitudes; porque me daba un no sé qué de contento verme tan querida y estimada de un tan principal caballero, y no me pesaba ver en sus papeles mis alabanzas: que en esto, por feas que seamos las mujeres, me parece a mí que siempre nos da gusto el oír que nos llaman hermosas. »Pero a todo esto se opone mi honestidad y los consejos continuos que mis padres me daban, que ya muy al descubierto sabían la voluntad de don Fernando, porque ya a él no se le daba nada de que todo el mundo la supiese.