"Silence, unhappy wretch!" cried the Linda; "silence; speak not to me of my daughter!"
"Yes," Rosario continued, "that is it; it was a daughter. Oh, you adored her, señora!"
"Adored my daughter!" cried the Linda, with the roar of a hyena.
"In the name of that beloved daughter, pity!"
The Linda broke suddenly into a frantic laugh. "Miserable fool! what a remembrance have you evoked!—It is to avenge my daughter! my daughter! who was stolen from me, that I wish to make of you the most unhappy of creatures."
Doña Rosario remained for an instant as if struck by a thunderbolt, but looking the courtesan full in the face, said—
"Señora, you have no heart—be then accursed. As to me, I shall be taught how to extricate myself from the outrages you vainly threaten me with."
And, with a movement as quick as thought, she snatched from the girdle of the Linda a narrow, sharp-pointed dagger.
The Linda sprang towards her.
"Stop, señora," the maiden said to her, resolutely; "one step farther, and I stab myself! Oh, I no longer fear you!"