The hacienda of San Carlos, inhabited by the man who was about to become his son-in-law--Don Fernando de Lacarra--was only a few leagues distant from that of Las Palmas; and Marianita did not like the idea of leaving the neighbourhood. Without stating the true one, she urged a thousand objections to this departure. Gertrudis was also against it. The souvenirs which Las Palmas called up were at once sweet and sad; and the influence which sorrow has over love is well-known--especially within the heart of woman. In the hacienda Las Palmas sad memories were not wanting to Gertrudis. How often, at sunset, did she sit in the window of her chamber, with her eyes bent in dreamy melancholy over the distant plain--deserted as on that evening when Don Rafael hastened to arrive, risking life that he might see her but an hour sooner! When Don Rafael, in the first burst of his grief and vengeance, indulged in that wild pleasure which is often felt in breaking the heart of another, while one's own is equally crushed--when he galloped off along the road to Oajaca, after burying the _gage d'amour_ in the tomb of his father--thus renouncing his love without telling of it--then, and for some time after, the young girl waited only with vivid impatience. The pique she had at first felt was soon effaced by anxiety for his safety; but this at length gave place to agony more painful than that of suspense--the agony of suspicion. We have already related, by what insensible and gradual transitions the family of Don Mariano de Silva had become confirmed in the belief, that Don Rafael had proved traitor to his mistress as to his country. Nevertheless, at that moment when he presented himself, to demand the surrendering of the brigands, the sound of his voice falling upon the ears of Gertrudis had come very near vanquishing her wounded pride. That manly voice--whether when exchanging a few words with her father, or hurling defiance at the ferocious Arroyo--had caused her heart to tremble in every fibre. She required at that moment to summon up all the resentment of love disdained, as well as all the natural modesty of woman, to hinder her from showing herself to Don Rafael, and crying out-- "Oh, Rafael! I can more easily bear the dagger of Arroyo, than your desertion of me!" "Alas! what have you done, _mio padre_?" cried she, addressing herself to her father, as soon as Don Rafael had gone; "you have wounded his pride by your irritating words, at the very moment when, out of regard for us, he has renounced the vengeance which he had sworn on the grave of his father! It may be that the words of oblivion and reconciliation were upon his lips; and you have hindered him from speaking them now and for ever. Ah! _mio padre_! you have ruined the last hope of your poor child!"