"Not all. It was Donna Lianor who told me where you were, and asked me to help you," Miriam said, blushing beneath his tender, grateful gaze. "Besides, I looked upon you as a friend," almost inaudibly.
"That is what I want to be—your friend. And Lianor—how is she?— well?"
"As well as it is possible to be under the heavy trial she went through this morning. She was married to Manuel Tonza," sadly.
"Poor girl! Poor Lianor! Hers is indeed an unhappy lot!" Diniz murmured pityingly.
CHAPTER V.
In a large, handsome room, overlooking a shining river, now ablaze with sunshine, sat a beautiful woman, wearing on her face unmistakable signs of sadness.
She scarcely heeded the opening door, until two pretty children came bounding to her side, clambering onto her chair and lap.
Then her face changed, and a sweet, tender smile chased away all gloom; the idle hands were busy now stroking the curly heads pressed so close against her.
"I would have brought them to you before, but their father wished to keep them; he is always so happy when they are near," a little, dark-eyed woman, clad in picturesque robes of brilliant crimson and gold, said rapidly, as she threw herself down on a pile of soft cushions opposite the sweet, pale mother.