“Alas, no! She is still a prisoner. Only yesterday I paid the tax of one thousand pesos put upon me.”
“It is an outrage.”
“It is the seventh I have paid, señor, and I believe there are to be five more, if not still more, before she is returned to us.”
“And other families pay this same tax?”
“Yes, señor.”
“It is infamous.”
“But they do not all pay the same sum, señor, for the taxgatherer knows well the circumstances of each of his victims, and collects accordingly. He does not put upon any one a sum that cannot be paid, for when I pay a thousand, a poor man pays a hundred, and one pays five thousand pesos, señor.”
“Who is that?”
“A young girl, the Señorita Suelo Sada, known as The Fair Hermit.”
“Ah! who did you say she was?”