in the meantime, senén, a mercenary servant, offers an incriminating love letter for sale. the letter implies that dolly, the eldest of the two girls, who all along has defended forcefully the well being of her grandfather, is the legitimate child. with this piece of information, don rodrigo confronts his daughter in law once again. he asks her to allow him to live with dolly in the family rural estate, but lucrecia refuses to be parted from any of her daughters without admitting the truth about dolly’s paternity. soon after, lucrecia’s confessor reveals to don rodrigo that he has been in the wrong. nelly is his biological granddaughter. finally reconciling with the count of albrit, lucrecia leaves for madrid with nelly. dolly stays behind with don rodrigo, who has his wishes fulfilled. pio coronado buries his suicidal intentions.