"Come, I am waiting for you."
"Good! This is what I propose to you: you are my prisoner, well, I will restore you to liberty if you will deliver doña Dolores, I will not say into my hands, but into those of Count de la Saulay, her cousin, whom she is going to marry immediately."
"Hum! This is serious, my dear sir; please remember that I am my sister's legal guardian."
"How her guardian?"
"Yes, since our father is dead."
"Don Andrés de la Cruz dead?" the adventurer exclaimed, leaping up.
"Alas! Yes," the young man replied, hypocritically raising his eyes to heaven; "we had the grief of losing him the night before last, and he was buried yesterday morning; the poor old gentleman could not resist the frightful misfortunes which have overwhelmed our family. Sorrow crushed him: his end was most affecting."
There was a silence, during which Oliver walked up and down the room. All at once the adventurer stopped in front of the young man.
"Without any further circumlocution," he said to him, "will you, yes or no, restore your sister her liberty?"
"No!" Melchior replied, resolutely.