“Nothing,” answered Peter. “I stare because you look so beautiful in it. Could you not have worn a veil? Doubtless there are more marquises about this court.”
“Only the Moors wear veils, Peter, and now we are Christians again. Listen—I think that none of them understand English. I have seen Inez, who asked after you very tenderly—nay, do not blush, it is unseemly in a man. Have you seen her also? No—well, she escaped from Granada as she planned, and Betty is married to the marquis.”
“It will never hold good,” answered Peter shaking his head, “being but a trick, and I fear that she will pay for it, poor woman! Still, she gave us a start, though, so far as prisons go, I was better off in Granada than in that rat-trap.”
“Yes,” answered Margaret innocently, “you had a garden to walk in there, had you not? No, don’t be angry with me. Do you know what Betty did?” And she told him of how she had lifted her veil and kissed Morella without being discovered.
“That isn’t so wonderful,” said Peter, “since if they are painted up young women look very much alike in a half-lit room——”
“Or garden?” suggested Margaret.
“What is wonderful,” went on Peter, scorning to take note of this interruption, “is that she could consent to kiss the man at all. The double-dealing scoundrel! Has Inez told you how he treated her? The very thought of it makes me ill.”
“Well, Peter, he didn’t ask you to kiss him, did he? And as for the wrongs of Inez, though doubtless you know more about them than I do, I think she has given him an orange for his pomegranate. But look, there is the Alcazar in front of us. Is it not a splendid castle? You know, it was built by the Moors.”
“I don’t care who it was built by,” said Peter, “and it looks to me like any other castle, only larger. All I know about it is that I am to be tried there for knocking that ruffian on the head—and that perhaps this is the last we shall see of each other, as probably they will send me to the galleys, if they don’t do worse.”
“Oh! say no such thing. I never thought of it; it is not possible!” answered Margaret, her dark eyes filling with tears.