''No matter! _what_ is no matter?' ''Why, no matter how well you fancy you feel; this is a sovereign remedy, so just drink it off to please me.' ''For mercy's sake, Señora, put down your medicine, sit down in the rocking-chair and draw near to the bedside, for I have several questions to ask. ''How long has my present neighbor lodged with you, Señora,' said I, when she had duly ensconced herself. She gazed inquiringly at me, but when I pointed to the door behind her, she replied, with apparent _nonchalance_: ''Somewhere about three months.' ''And who is he?' ''That is a question I can not answer?' ''Why not?' ''Because, over and above his rent, he paid me five dollars to hold my tongue.' ''If I were to offer you ten to let it go, how would it be then?' ''_Ten_ dollars!' replied my hostess, in a ruminating tone of voice. ''Yes, _ten_ dollars.' ''I should feel it my duty to my fatherless children to speak,' said this excellent mother of the bereaved heirs of the defunct Lopez. 'Yes--holy Virgin, forgive me--but I should feel _bound_ to speak.' ''It is a bargain, then; Señora, proceed.' ''Your neighbor, Señor,' replied my hostess, in a low voice, 'is a heretic--an Englishman.' ''Not an American?' ''English or American--what is the difference, any way? I tell you he is a heretic, and you know we Mexicans make no difference between those heathens--we call them all _Inglez_.'' 'The fair Teresa, I may remark, had always taken me for one of her fellow-countrymen, as I spoke the language fluently, and had been thoroughly sun-burnt years before. ''He arrived here, as I have already had the honor of saying, about three months since. He appears very sickly and exhausted, and from the look of his clothing I judge he had just returned from a long journey in the interior. 'Señora,' said he, when paying his bill in advance, 'I wish you to speak to no one of my residence in this house. I have no family, no country, and no name; I hate the world; I do not know a soul in this city, and I do not want to. I expect two inquiries to be made for me, one by a man, the other will be by a woman. I will not see any others. Should either of them call, their first salutation to you will be: 'The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.' Without that pass-word, I forbid you to allow any one to have access to my room.'' ''Well, Señora Lopez, have these folks with the eternal pass-word turned up yet?' ''No, Excellency, during the whole three months he has not had a single visitor. Every morning when I take him his chocolate, he promises a dollar if I can find him a letter at the post-office. So every day I go, but unfortunately I have only found two for him in all that time.' ''But, of course, if you go for his letters, you must know his name, and surely you noticed where the two came from, which you received for him.' ''They were addressed to Albert Pride, and bore the stamp, 'New-Orleans.' But who knows whether that is his real name?'