"I will, Pauline."
"Then prove your trust by implicit obedience."
"I will," answered the young man.
He retired to his old apartment. It had been undisturbed since the day on which he quitted it. His books and papers all remained as he had left them, not a speck of dust had gathered upon any article in the room.
He knew not that this was owing to the orders given by Camillia Moraquitos to her favorite slave, Pepita.
He entered the chamber, and was about to secure the door before reading the document given to him by Pauline, but he found, to his surprise, that there was no key in the lock.
He had always been in the habit of locking the door, and he knew, therefore, that the key had been removed since he left the villa.
Taking the parchment from his breast he seated himself near the window, beneath the shade of the Venetian shutters, and commenced his examination of the all-important document.
It was the last will and testament of Tomaso Crivelli, in which the Spaniard bequeathed his entire fortune to his only and beloved son, Paul Crivelli. Attached to the will was a letter addressed to Paul, in which Don Tomaso revealed to him that he was the son of a favorite quadroon slave, whom the Spaniard had married after giving her her freedom.
The marriage had been kept a secret on account of the false pride of Don Tomaso, which would not permit him to acknowledge as his wife one who was known to have been a slave.