[1] Oh, if I had been born blind, or if you had been born ugly! Accursed be the day and hour—
[2] By the feeble light of some clear star, which, in the midst of the gloomy silence, mournfully twinkles.
[CHAPTER VI.]
DELILAH.
The position of our two characters toward each other was somewhat singular. Both appeared to be watching each other, and trying to discover the flaw in the armour; but in this struggle of a man against a woman, the latter must inevitably prove the conqueror.
Don Cornelio had possibly a rather exaggerated opinion of himself. This was what ruined him, and delivered him bound hand and foot over to his dangerous adversary.
Doña Angela, resting coquettishly on her elbow, with her chin on the palm of her dainty hand, fixed on him two eyes sparkling with maliciousness, so that the Spaniard, as it were, fascinated by the brilliancy of this irresistible glance, had not even the will to turn his head, and liberate himself from the deceptive charm that fascinated him.
"Violanta," the girl said, in a voice soft and pure as the song of the centzontle, the American nightingale, "have you no refreshments to offer this caballero?"
"Oh, certainly," said the crafty camarista, with a look sufficient to tempt St. Anthony; and she rose quickly to obey her mistress's directions.