“Luisa, I am not your brother, but am an impostor! Stay. Do not speak yet; let me finish, now that I have said the worst. But as the blessed Virgin knows, I thought that I was when I first came. In that, at least, I am innocent.
“The story that I told you and moth—your mother, was all true, so far as concerned myself. I was raised among your uncle’s band of Jarochos, and taught to consider myself an orphan. Who or what my parents were, I could never learn. They either did not know, or would not tell me. As I grew older, I learned how wicked were the ways of my comrades, but I could not resolve to leave the only friends that I had ever known, and still continued with the band. But I did not join them upon their plundering excursions, and managed to live fairly by selling the game I killed, or its hides. Then, as I told you, when I returned from one of my excursions, I found our captain, or your uncle, lying wounded unto death; and then he told me who I was, giving me the letter to carry to your mother and whom he swore was also my parent. God help me, I did not dream that a dying man would so perjure himself, and I believed all that he told me!
“You know how I was received, and that your mother was struck by my resemblance to your dead father, even before the letter was opened. But I can not dwell upon that now—now that I have lost it all. Then came the note that so astounded me, when I left you here, to meet the writer, who was none other than the lieutenant of the band to which I had belonged. I met him, and then, for the first time, I learned the plot of which I had been made the instrument.
“He told me that I was not your brother; that he was dead, and showed me a letter from your uncle saying as much. He then offered me my choice. Either to pay two thousand onzas each year, and he would be silent, otherwise he would expose the imposition to Senora Canelo. What could I do? That which was right, you say; but I could not. Holy Mother, forgive me, I promised the villain that I would submit to his demands, and in that was my sin, or part of it.
“The other was in receiving the caresses of you two—ladies, that belonged to a relation—not to me, the impostor. But my punishment was begun, even then. How could I look you in the face, and know, that if you only realized what a wretch I was, in reality, that you would as soon place to your lips a plate of red-hot iron, as to have kissed me. Can you guess how the words, ‘mother—sister,’ choked me as I was forced to utter them. But that was not all.
“When I found that you were not my sister, the love that I had thought a brother’s grew stronger and more painful, until I found that I loved you as only a man can love once in his lifetime. God knows how I strove to subdue it, and crush it out from my heart; but could I? Ah, no; it grew from day to day, hour to hour, until it became my master. It showed me the crime that I had contemplated, and at last I resolved to confess it, and then fly from the spot where I had been so happy, but I must again make miserable!” concluded the young man, as he covered his face with his hands, and wept the bitter tears of one whose soul is rocked with agony.
For a few moments Luisa set as if petrified, so sudden and unexpected had been the shock. But then the wild look passed from her eyes, and as they dimmed, her hand stole slowly along and rested upon that of him whom she had believed her brother. As he felt the light touch he shrunk away, as if it had been a serpent, and exclaimed:
“Stay, Luisa; do not touch me!”
“Felipe, do you remember what you said a while since? Here is my hand,” whispered the maiden, as she again touched his hand with hers.
“Luisa, think what you do. If I take your hand, remember that it is for ever; as that of my wife!” cried Felipe.