use, Don Rafael, Teodosia, and others, "Senor Marco Antonio
Adorno," she said, "it is now no seasonable time, considering your
condition, to utter many words; and therefore I shall only entreat you
to lend your ear to some few which concern, if not the safety of your
body, at least that of your soul. But I must have your permission to
speak; for it would ill become me, who have striven never to disoblige
you from the first moment I knew you, to disturb you now in what seems
almost your last."

At these words Marco Antonio opened his eyes, looked steadfastly at
Leocadia, and recognising her rather by the tone of her voice than by
her face, said with a feeble voice, like one in pain, "Say on, senor,
what you please, for I am not so far gone but that I can listen to you;
nor is that voice of yours so harsh and unpleasing that I should dislike
to hear it."

Teodosia hearkened most attentively, and every word that Leocadia spoke
pierced her heart like an arrow, and at the same time harrowed the soul
of Don Rafael. "If the blow you have received," continued Leocadia, "or
rather that which has struck my heart, has not effaced from your memory,
senor Marco Antonio, the image of her whom not long ago you called your
glory and your heaven, you must surely call to mind who Leocadia was,
and what was the promise you gave her in writing under your own hand;
nor can you have forgotten the worth of her parents, her own modesty and
virtue, and the obligation you are under to her for having always
gratified you in everything you desired. If you have not forgotten all
this, you may readily know, in spite of this disguise, that I am
Leocadia. As soon as I heard of your departure from home, dreading lest
new chances and opportunities should deprive me of what is so justly
mine, I resolved, in defiance of the worst miseries, to follow you in
this garb, and to search the wide world over till I found you. Nor need
you wonder at this, if you have ever felt what the strength of true love
is capable of, or know the frenzy of a deceived woman. I have suffered
some hardships in my quest, all of which I regard as pastime since they
have resulted in my seeing you; for, though you are in this condition,
if it be God's will to remove you to a better world, I shall esteem
myself more than happy if before your departure you do what becomes you,
in which case I promise you to live in such a manner after your death
that I shall soon follow you on that la