Dona Victorina wrinkled up her eyebrows and stared at his false teeth.

He became silent, and she understood his weakness.
She placed a _de_ before her husband's surname, since the _de_ cost nothing and gave "quality" to the name, signing herself "Victorina de los Reyes _de_ De Espadana." This _de_ was such a mania with her that neither the stationer nor her husband could get it out of her head.

"If I write only one _de_ it may be thought that you don't have it, you fool!" she said to her husband.

[119] Soon she believed that she was about to become a mother, so she announced to all her acquaintances, "Next month De Espadana and I are going to the _Penyinsula_.

I don't want our son to be born here and be called a revolutionist." She talked incessantly of the journey, having memorized the names of the different ports of call, so that it was a treat to hear her talk: "I'm going to see the isthmus in the Suez Canal--De Espadana thinks it very beautiful and De Espadana has traveled over the whole world." "I'll probably not return to this land of savages." "I wasn't born to live here--Aden or Port Said would suit me better--I've thought so ever since I was a girl." In her geography Dona Victorina divided the world into the Philippines and Spain; rather differently from the clever people who divide it into Spain and America or China for another name.
Her husband realized that these things were barbarisms, but held his peace to escape a scolding or reminders of his stuttering.