"I could not stay away. I led you into misfortune. Oh, how you have suffered. You are thin and wan. What a wretch am I! When you see me no more will you forgive me?" "Forgive!" and Dick replied in a more emphatic way than words afford. "They would not let me leave the house for ten days. They told me if I ever dared to see you again they would kill you. So I knew you were not dead. But I did not know how they had beaten you till one day Ricardo told me all. To think of you unarmed fighting so gallantly. Four of them were so bruised that they have not yet recovered. To-day Luigi went to Civita Vecchia. He told me that if I dared to go to Rome he would send me to a convent. But I disobeyed him. I could not rest. I had to come and see how you were, and to--bid--adieu--" "Adieu! bid adieu?--never. I will not let you." "Ah, now you talk wildly," said Pepita, mournfully, "for you know we must part." "We shall not part." "I will have to go home, and you can not follow me." "Oh, Pepita, I can not give you up. You shall be mine--now--my wife --and come with me home--to America. And we shall never again have to part." "Impossible," said Pepita, as big tear-drops fell from her eyes. "Impossible!" "Why impossible?" "Luigi would track us to the end of the world." "Track us! I would like to see him try it!" cried Dick in a fury. "I have an account to settle with him which will not be pleasant for him to pay. Who is he to dare to stand between me and you? As to following me--Well, I have already given him a specimen of what I am. I would give a year of my life to have him alone for about half an hour." "You wrong him," cried Pepita, earnestly. "You wrong him. You must not talk so. He is not a bravo. He is my brother. He has been like a father to me. He loves me dearly, and my good name is dearer to him than life. He is so good and so noble, dear Luigi! It was his love for me that blinded him and made him furious. He thought you were deceiving us all, and would not listen to you." "But if he were so noble would he have attacked one unarmed man, and he at the head of a dozen?" "I tell you," cried Pepita, "you do not know him. He was so blinded by passion that he had no mercy. Oh, I owe every thing to him! And I know how good and noble he is!" "Pepita, for your sake I will forgive him every thing." "I can not stay longer," said Pepita, making an effort to rise. "Oh, Pepita! you can not leave me forever." Pepita fell weeping into his arms, her slender form convulsed with emotion. "You shall not." "I must--there is no help." "Why must you? Can you not fly with me? What prevents you from being mine? Let us go and be united in the little church where I saw you first." "Impossible!" moaned Pepita. "Why?" "Because I could not do you such injustice. You have your father far away in America. You might offend him." "Bother my father!" cried Dick. Pepita looked shocked.