"Oh!" he muttered reproachfully.
"We had a rather disagreeable adventure, if I remember right, with certain bandits?" she continued.
"Extremely disagreeable, for I was half killed."
"That is true; I remember something of the sort. Were you not rescued by a hunter, a wood ranger? I can hardly remember."
"A noble gentleman, señorita," Don Cornelio replied with fire, "to whom I owe my life."
"Ah!" she said carelessly, "that is possible. The man helped you, nursed you, and then you parted?"
"Not exactly."
"What!" she said, with some agitation, "you continued to live together?"
"Yes."
"Always?"