"Far, far away," said Dolores, her sweet voice rising to a plaintive note; "far away--in Cuba--oh, many, many years! And there the padre had a plantation, and was rich; but the insurrection it did break out, and he was killed." Dolores stopped and wiped her eyes. Katie looked at her, and her own eyes overflowed with tears of tender sympathy. "Oh, how sad!" she said. "I had no idea." Dolores drew a long breath. "Yes; he died, the good, tender padre; and madre and me be left all--all--all--alone--alone--in the cruele world. And the rebel came, and the soldiers, and oh, how they did fight! And the slaves, they did all run away--all--all--all--away; and the trees and fruits all destroy; and the houses all burn up in one gran' conflagration; and it was one kind, good American that did help us to fly; or we never--never would be able to lif. So we did come back to our patria poor, and we had to lif poor in Valencia. I told you I was lifing in Valencia when I left that place to come on thees travel." "I suppose," said Katie, "since you lived in this castle once, you must know all about it." "Oh yes, all--all about it." "And you must have been all over it in every direction." "Oh yes, all over it--all--all over it--thousand--thousand times, and in every parts and spots." "It's such a strange old castle," continued Katie, who was very anxious to find out how far the knowledge of Dolores went, and whether she knew anything about the secret passage; "it's such a strange old castle; it's like those that one reads of in the old romances." "Yes, oh, vara, vara," said Dolores; "like the feudal Gothic castellos of the old--old charming romances; like the castello of the Cid; and you go up the towers and into the turrets, and you walk over the top, past the battlementa, and you spy, spy, spy deep down into the courts; and you dream, and dream, and dream. And when I was a vara leetl child, I did use to do nothing else but wander about, and dream, and dream, and get lost, and could not find my way back. Oh, I could tell you of a thousand things. I could talk all the day of that bright, bright time when my padre was like a noble; so rich he was, and living in his grand castello." "And did you really wander about so? and did you really get lost so?" asked Katie, who was still following up her idea, being intent upon learning how much Dolores knew about the inner secrets of the castle--"such as where, now," she added, eagerly, "where would you get lost?"