nor time--I want you for my wife--_want you, and will have
you_."

"_Your_ wife!"

"Yes; my wife. You needn't look surprised, nor counterfeit feeling it.
And equally idle for you to make opposition. I've determined upon it.
So, you must many me."

"Marry the murderer of my father! Sooner than do that, you shall also
be mine. Wretch! I am in your power. You can kill me now."

"I know all that, without your telling me. But I don't intend killing
you. On the contrary, I shall take care to keep you alive, until I've
tried what sort of a wife you'll make. Should you prove a good one, and
fairly affectionate, we two may lead a happy life together,
notwithstanding the little unpleasantness that's been between us. If
not, and our wedded bondage prove uncongenial, why, then, I may release
you in the way you wish, or any other that seems suitable. After the
honeymoon, you shall have your choice. Now Dona Carmen! those are my
conditions. I hope you find them fair enough!"

She makes no reply. The proud girl is dumb, partly with indignation,
partly from the knowledge that all speech would be idle. But while
angry to the utmost, she is also afraid--trembling at the alternative
presented--death or dishonour; the last if she marry the murderer of her
father; the first if she refuse him!

The ruffian repeats his proposal, in the same cynical strain, concluding
it with a threat.

She is at length stung to reply; which she does in but two words, twice
repeated in wild despairing accent. They are:

"Kill me--kill me!"

Almost at the same time, and in similar strain does Inez answer her
cowardly suitor, who in a corner of the grotto has alike brought her to
bay.

After the dual response, there is a short interval of silence. Then De
Lara, speaking for both, says:

"Senoritas! we shall leave you now; and you can go to sleep without fear
of further solicitation. No doubt, after a night's rest, you'll awake
to a more sensible view of matters in general, and the case as it
stands. Of one thing be assured; that there's no chance of your
escaping from your present captivity, unless by consenting to change
your names. And if you don't consent, they'll be changed all the same.
Yes, Carmen Montijo! before another week passes over your head, you
shall be addressed as Dona Carmen de Lara.

"And you, Inez Alvarez, will be called Dona Inez Calderon. No need for
you to feel dishonoured by a name among the first in C