In this story by Paz Latorena, a runaway maid falls in love with a cobbler whose shop she had sheltered in during a rainstorm. After hearing her tragic story and feeling guilty about cohabitating with her, the cobbler proposes marriage. He uses poverty as an excuse to delay the marriage, and in the meantime they live happily together. She learns his true feelings when, after arranging for her former employer to “secretly” give him enough to get married, he doesn’t tell her. Themes include love, passion, social conventions, poverty, control, deception, disillusionment, female empowerment.