A feverish flush suffused the countenance of the marquis; he knitted his eyebrows so as to make them meet; but considering, no doubt, the ridiculousness of a scene with a slave who was only acting according to orders, he soon mastered himself. "Well," said he, intentionally slightly raising his voice, "your mistress is free in her own house to act in her own way; only, this interview, which for some days she has refused me with such obstinacy, I shall know how to compel her to accord to me." Scarcely had he pronounced these words, when a curtain was drawn aside, and doña Laura entered the room. "You threaten me, I think, Don Roque de Castelmelhor," said she, in a sharp and loud voice. "Retire, Phoebe," added she; "but only go so far as you may be able to come to me immediately." Phoebe bowed her head, cast a last look at the marquis, and left the room. "Now, Señor caballero," pursued doña Laura, "since the slave has retired, speak; I will listen to you." The marquis bowed respectfully to her-- "Not, Señorita, before you have deigned to take a seat." "What good will that do? But," she added, "if that mark of condescension will abridge this interview, it would ill become me not to obey you." The marquis bit his lip, but did not answer. Doña Laura seated herself on the sofa farthest removed, and crossing her arms on her chest with a wearied air, while she fixed on her interlocutor a haughty look-- "Speak now, I beg you," said she. "Phoebe has not lied to you; I am extremely fatigued." These words were hissed, if we may employ the happy expression of an old author, from the most sharpened beak than can be imagined, and doña Laura leant her head on a cushion, feigning a slight gape. But the resolution of the marquis had been taken, not to see or understand anything. Doña Laura was sixteen years of age; all grace and delicacy. Her charmingly developed figure had that sprightliness which Spanish women alone possess. Her bearing was marked by that careless and voluptuous languor, the secret of which the Hispano-Americans have obtained from the Andalusians. Her long deep chestnut hair fell in silky ringlets on brilliantly white shoulders; her blue and dreamy eyes seemed to reflect the azure of the sky, and were crowned by black eyebrows, the delicate outline of which was traced as with a pencil. Her finely chiselled nose, and her charming little mouth, which, in half opening, discovered a double row of pearly teeth, completed a beauty rendered more gentle and noble by the delicacy and transparency of her skin.