It's the principle they're after, not the sentiment.
But Victor was not satisfied with this proof of his niece's skill.

"Say to her," he demanded of Miguel, "what name thou likest, and it shall be done before thee here." Miguel was not so much in love but he perceived the drift of Victor's suggestion, and remarked that the rubric of Governor Micheltorena was exceedingly complicated and difficult.

"She shall do it!" responded Victor, with decision.
From a file of old departmental papers the Governor's signature and that involved rubric, which must have cost his late Excellency many youthful days of anxiety, was produced and laid before Carmen.
Carmen took her pen in her hand, looked at the brownish-looking document, and then at the virgin whiteness of the foolscap before her.
"But," she said, pouting prettily, "I should have to first paint this white paper brown.

And it will absorb the ink more quickly than that.
When I painted the San Antonio of the Mission San Gabriel for Father Acolti, I had to put the decay in with my oils and brushes before the good Padre would accept it." The two scamps looked at each other.

It was their supreme moment.