"Exactly, and as he is dead it would necessitate my becoming a disembodied spirit--" "Ah! yes, but he is not dead." "Pardon, you told me so many times, and I mourned with you on account of your loss." "It was all a terrible mistake." "And Leon is not dead?" "At least he was alive three months ago. Oh! you do not know, you cannot understand the great joy with which I but recently learned how we had all been deceived." Her face glowed with enthusiasm. Every atom of his old mad idolatry seemed resurrected, and Roderic was almost ready to bend down in order to kiss the hem of her garment, he felt so abased on account of the wrong his hasty action had brought upon her. "Where am I to search?" he asked, eagerly, as though ready to start on the jump. "He is in Porto Rico." "Good. That is where I am going to-morrow." "And whither we also expect to bring up as soon as steam can take us." "Tell me what you know of him, this brother who was dead, yet lives. How shall I know him?" "Ah! you would recognize him, Senor Roderic, did you but meet on the ocean as castaways, or in the midst of the Great Sahara." "Then he looks like you?" "They have always said it." "That is enough--I shall remember always." "And you undertake the mission?" eagerly. His eyes met her glowing orbs. "You have yourself named the condition, Georgia. If I find this brother you will forgive me the cruel past--you promise to love me again?" "Ah, senor, I have never been able to crush that love from my heart--it is as strong there to-day as when we pledged our lives to happiness. Stay, do not misunderstand me," as he made a movement toward her, "until you have done something to atone for your desertion, Senor Roderic, we may not resume those relations." "And should fate baffle my search--should Leon be actually dead, do I lose all, sweetheart--will you throw my love away like an old glove?" "I could not, for your love is life to me. I have hoped through these gloomy years, hoped you might learn how cruel, how unjust you had been, and return to me. If you search with all your heart, that will answer my demands." "How eagerly I shall try let Heaven be my witness. During the long and dreary months since last I saw you, dear girl, I have lived ages. Many times rebellion arose within my heart, fermented by the love that lingered there, and could only be put down with an iron hand. Now I shall hope to make such poor amends as lie in my power for the wretched mistakes of that dreadful past. But tell what you know of Leon--why has he been dead to you so long, and what reason have you to believe he still lives and is in Porto Rico?" "You think it strange--it is right to look at it in that way. I myself sometimes doubt whether I am awake, it all seems so marvelous, so startling.