"With pleasure."
"I am engaged to dance with Donna Isabel de Campo," said Alister; "but pray introduce me, Louis."
"And me," added Ronald. "A most lucky dog you are!" These observations passed in English; but the formal introduction was gone through in choice Castilian. "I have surely had the happiness of seeing Donna Virginia before," said Ronald. "It is impossible I could ever forget."
"Holy Mother! Senor Officiale," exclaimed the young lady with an air of pretty surprise, as she raised her fine eye-brows; "is it possible that you recognise me, arrayed as I now am in a garb so different from that which I wore in the convent of Santa Cruz?"
"Do I behold the Madre Santa Martha of Jarciejo in Donna Virginia? What riddle is this, senora?"
"A strange one truly, senor, and a very agreeable transformation," replied the lady, blushing and smiling as she glanced at her figure, which was fully reflected in an opposite mirror.
"What is all this?" asked Lisle in surprise. "Then you are acquainted with each other, it seems?"
"O yes, Don Louis; quite old friends indeed," replied the lady, with a vivacity which piqued Don Louis a little. "We met on a sad occasion—a very sad one, truly,—of which I will give you the history when we are at leisure. 'Tis quite a romance, and Cervantes of Esquivas,[*] or Juan de Valencia,[**] have never written any thing like it."
[*] Cervantes is said to have been born at Esquivas, near Toledo.
[**] Author of El Patranuelo, and other old-fashioned works.