"It is because I do love you as I say, that I am here," urged Pedro, making another effort to clasp her in his arms.
But she eluded him, and in a voice there was no mistaking—low, subdued, and full of angry determination, she replied:
"Begone, senor, or by the soul of my mother, I shall summon my father, and he always sleeps with fire-arms at hand."
"Demonio! what a little spitfire it is."
At that moment there was a loud knock on the chamber-door.
"Who is there?" asked Ignez, growing deadly pale, and sickening with the thought of the false position in which Pedro had placed her.
"Open, Ignez," said the voice of Don Salvador, "'Tis I, your father."
"What is the matter, senor?" asked Ignez, almost sinking with distress.
"A man has been seen to enter the house!"
"A man!"