Noble Woman: I am noble, I attest to it. Although there are many noble and fair women of my social standing who were not granted an education from their families, I am educated. I speak French and am quite learned in the great works of literature. I was married at the accustomed age of twenty-two to a husband that was chosen for me by my family. He courted me in the most noble of ways, and proved to follow the strict religious rule of a pious marriage. My parents were able to grant him a dowry and therefore I feel noble in every way. My sister, in a convent now, is even educated. Our parents would not give a dowry for her, so she was placed there, but we are noble in birth.

Olivares: Yes, education did separate us from the likes of the peasants, but we had become so infiltrated with people who could by these titles of hidalgos that you speak of. It was for the purse of the nation, as well as the sale of juros, but the lines of nobility have been blurred.