"I see, with pleasure, that you have, in default of other qualities, frankness, Señor," ironically replied the girl. "Robbed of all its property, my family, exiled for nearly a century from the country discovered by one of its ancestors, could live but with difficulty. You presented yourself to my father as a victim of the political intrigues of people into whose hands the king of Portugal had delegated his powers; this reason was sufficient for our house to become yours, and for my father not keeping secrets from you. There was one, however, of which, notwithstanding all your skill, it was impossible for you to obtain the revelation; it is on the discovery of that secret that depended the future fortune of his family, if, as my father hoped, the king should permit him someday to return to Brazil. This secret, which my father, my brother, and myself alone knew, by what means you succeeded, if not in wholly discovering it, at least in penetrating it sufficiently that your covetousness and your avarice should be aroused to the point of making you betray your benefactors--that is what I shall not seek to explain. In a word, although you had, during several months, lived intimately with us, without appearing to honour me with the least attention--treating me rather as a child than as a young girl, suddenly you changed. You see that I also am frank." "Go on, Señorita," answered the marquis, smiling, "I know your candour. It remains for me to learn whether you possess as much perspicacity." "You shall not be long judging of that, Señor," replied she, ironically. "Perhaps your cares and devotion would have obtained the result you hoped for, and I might have been brought, if not to love you, at least to be interested in you; but, happily for me, I was not long in seeing clearly into your heart. Carried away by insatiable avarice, you allowed yourself on several occasions in my presence, to speak to me of everything but your pretended love." "Oh, Señorita," exclaimed the marquis. "Yes," answered she, with bitter raillery; "I know you are a consummate actor, and that it would not be my fault were I even now to believe in that passion of which you make so great a display." The young girl paused for some moments, to allow the marquis the opportunity of answering, but, instead of doing so, he bit his lips and bowed his head. Doña Laura smiled. "The brutal way in which you have traitorously carried me off is the most decided proof to me of the odious scheme of which I have been the victim. If you really loved me, nothing was easier to you than to ask my hand of my father." "Señorita, did you not answer to the demand I had the honour to address to you by a refusal?" asked the marquis.