CHAPTER XXI.
THE ABDUCTION.
Let us return to New Orleans and to the Villa Moraquitos. An hour after Augustus Horton left the boudoir of Camillia, the Spanish heiress and her companion Pauline Corsi were seated, side by side, in a deep recess of a window, looking out upon the shining waters of the Mississippi.
"So you have rejected him, Camillia?" said Pauline.
"Rejected him!" repeated the Spanish girl, contemptuously, "Could you ever dream that I should do otherwise?"
"And yet Augustus Horton is rich, young, handsome, distinguished—"
"He may be all that," interrupted Camillia. "Yet I have no feeling for him but indifference—nay, contempt."
"Shall I tell you the secret of that indifference?" said Pauline, with a smile.
"If you please," answered Camillia, carelessly.
"The secret is your love for another. Ay, that start and blush would betray you had naught else already done so. My foolish Camillia, did you think to conceal the truth from one who had known you from childhood? On the day of Paul Lisimon's apprehension I told him that I had long known all."