"No, no," said the other, shaking his head mournfully; "that is impossible: everything separates us. You have forgotten who she is; you have forgotten what I am—I, Stoneheart, the man whose name, pronounced to an inhabitant of the borders, makes him thrill with terror. No; it is the dream of a fool: a love like that would be monstrous. I repeat, it is impossible."
The Tigercat coolly shrugged his shoulders.
"My son," said he, "you have yet much to learn concerning that many-sided being, that graceful compound of angel and devil, that whimsical mixture of all good qualities and all vices, the world calls woman. Be quite sure, my son, that since the time of mother Eve, woman has never changed; there are the same treasons, the same perfidies, still the same feline nature of the tiger, mingled with the no less tortuous ways of the serpent. Woman must be quelled by the bold, or she will busy herself with the hope of quelling him; she will always despise the man for whom, in her secret heart, she feels no fear, and for whom she entertains no involuntary respect. Your chances of winning the heart of Hermosa, and installing yourself therein as master, are numberless; you are proscribed, and your name is a name of terror. Oh, my boy, love lives upon contrasts, knows no disparities, and despises the barrier raised by human vanity. The man most sure to succeed with a woman is precisely the only one whom, in the eyes of the world, she ought to repel the most."
"Enough of this theme!" cried the hunter violently; "Your horrible theories have already troubled my soul, and harrowed my heart. Let us stop this conversation, of which I am weary. Again, I ask, what are your intentions towards your prisoners?"
"I repeat, that it depends entirely upon yourself; they are in your hands."
"If that be the case, they shall not stay long in your hideous lair; tomorrow, at daybreak, they shall go."
"Just what I wish, my son."
"I myself will be their guide. You will restore everything you have taken from them—horses and baggage."
"You shall restore them yourself; you can easily invent a story for returning what belongs to them which shall not compromise me."
"Compromise you!" sneered Stoneheart.