“Isabel has told me what has passed between you, Senhor Capitano,” continued the noble; “but though I will never thwart her will, you must remember we know little of each other.”
“Ours has scarcely been a ball-room meeting,” returned the English officer, in a tone scarcely less haughty than that of the Portuguese.
“That I am willing to concede, and more, for on one occasion at least my daughter owed you her life, but even that is not a debt on which a noble caballero counts. Are you aware that Isabel, on her father’s side, descends from the oldest dukedom of the land, that of the princely house of Cadaval?”
His listener bowed stiffly, and the proud noble continued—
“Are you aware also that her mother was of the race of the Guzmans of Castille, and that in her is concentrated the purest Spanish, with the oldest blood of Portugal?”
“Well, as to that,” replied Hughes, who could not help smiling, though feeling very anxious, “I can count pedigree with any man, only instead of the Guzmans of Castille, I must refer you back to the rude hills of the Cymri and the chieftains, my ancestors, who wore their golden torques, when the Druids raised their altars in Britain, and before even the Romans knew the land.”
The speaker’s voice showed pride and dignity fully equal to that of the noble, though there breathed through the words a spirit of mockery and cynicism.
Dom Maxara bowed courteously. “I can hardly perceive the analogy between your skin-clad ancestors and the chivalrous barons of my land,” he replied coldly.
“I regret to hear it, Senhor,” said the soldier, with some show of humour, “and it yet remains for me to learn how as to birth and old lineage I am so immeasurably your inferior,” he continued, sharply. “The boon I ask of you is great, so great that a lifetime of devotion will not pay my debt, but in other matters,” and here the delicacy of the subject striking him, he paused. “In a word, Senhor Maxara, my fortune is small, very small, and resumes itself thus:—A captain’s commission, an income of five hundred a year besides, and an old name, and old house in Wales. In worldly means I am not rich, but in love for Dona Isabel I will not yield even to a father.”
“And she has told you that your love is returned, has she not?” asked the noble.