I was astonished at this unusual turn, which I never before observed in her. for we always conversed, whenever good fortune and my ingenuity gave us the chance, with the greatest gaiety and cheerfulness, mingling tears, sighs, jealousies, doubts, or fears with our words; it was all on my part a eulogy of my good fortune that Heaven should have given her to me for my mistress; I glorified her beauty, I extolled her worth and her understanding; and she paid me back by praising in me what in her love for me she thought worthy of praise; and besides we had a hundred thousand trifles and doings of our neighbours and acquaintances to talk about, and the utmost extent of my boldness was to take, almost by force, one of her fair white hands and carry it to my lips, as well as the closeness of the low grating that separated us allowed me.
Con esto, nos contábamos cien mil niñerías y acaecimientos de nuestros vecinos y conocidos, y a lo que más se entendía mi desenvoltura era a tomarle, casi por fuerza, una de sus bellas y blancas manos, y llegarla a mi boca, según daba lugar la estrecheza de una baja reja que nos dividía. Pero la noche que precedió al triste día de mi partida, ella lloró, gimió y suspiró, y se fue, y me dejó lleno de confusión y sobresalto, espantado de haber visto tan nuevas y tan tristes muestras de dolor y sentimiento en Luscinda.