"What! why you, pardieu!"
"You are mistaken, brother. I am weary as you can be of the life we are leading; we will depart as soon as you please."
"That is not my meaning; be frank with me: it is impossible that the ardent love you felt for Doña Rosario could have evaporated thus all at once."
"What makes you think I do not love her?"
"Come!—come!" Valentine replied, "let us have an end of all this; if you love Doña Rosario, why do you want to leave this place, and why do you refuse to marry her?"
"It is not I who refuse," the young man murmured with a sigh, "it is she!"
"She! no—no! come! that is not possible!"
"Brother, a long time ago, the very next day after the night when at Santiago we delivered her from the hands of the bandits who were carrying her off, she herself told me that we never could be united. She ordered me to avoid her presence, and demanded my word of honour that I would never seek to see her again. Why, then, should I lull myself with a wild chimera! You see, brother, I have no hope left."
"Perhaps!—but so many things have taken place since that period that the intentions of Doña Rosario may have changed."
"No," the count replied, despondingly.