"And I?" said the maiden, in a faint voice.
"Oh! you?" he replied, embracing her tenderly; "you are my beloved daughter, but I have no son!"
"That is true!" she murmured, thoughtfully.
"Loyal Heart," the general continued, "is of too proud a nature to accept anything of me. What am I to do? how acquit myself towards him? how acknowledge, as I ought, the immense services he has rendered me?"
There was a moment of silence.
Doña Luz inclined towards the general, and kissing his brow, she said to him in a low tremulous voice, concealing her face upon his shoulder:
"Uncle, I have an idea."
"Speak, my darling," he replied, "speak without fear; it is, perhaps, God who inspires you."
"You have no son to whom you can bequeath your name and your immense fortune, have you, uncle?"
"Alas! I thought for a time, I might recover one, but that hope has vanished for ever; you know, child, I am alone."