t, with the assurance that by so doing I shall
accomplish one important step towards the 'termination of the sad story
of this ill-begotten wooing' (para completar la triste historia de ese
amor desgraciado).

The letter concludes as follows:--

'Perhaps you will receive a parting word from me' (the present document
occupies exactly eight pages of closely written convent paper), 'which
will put an end to this unfortunate story. You must, then, forget me
entirely. Look upon the past as a dream, an illusion, a flash of
happiness which is no more. Never must the name of Cachita escape your
lips. I shall remember you only in my prayers' (the word 'only' is
erased with pencil). 'Fail not to send the letters. And adios! till we
meet in heaven.--CARIDAD.'

The bearer of this letter is Guadalupe, a slave of Cachita's father, Don
Severiano, and she is intrusted with messages to and from the convent.
Twice a week she visits the torno cupboard, charged with changes of
linen and other articles for her young mistress's use. Everything is
carefully examined by a nun, before being consigned to its owner; so
Tunicu's ingenious notion of conveying by this opportunity something
contraband to the fair prisoner cannot be entertained.

Having bribed Guadalupe with a bundle of cigars and a coloured
handkerchief for a turban, I obtain from her, in return, some
intelligence of her young mistress.

'Have you heard how la Nina Cachita fares?' I inquire.

'Badly,' says the negress. 'The monastic life does not agree with her
lively disposition, and she yearns for freedom again, la pobre!'

'Then the nuns have not succeeded in converting her?'

'I think not, miamo. In a letter to her mother, Dona Belen, who has
still a good opinion of your worship, mi amita Cachita ridicules the
Monjas (nuns), and describes their strange ways.'

'Has Don Severiano expressed his intention to release la Nina at the
expiration of her allotted six months?'

'I believe so; but even then, it will be nearly five long months before
she can be with us again!'

The most important information which I draw from the communicative black
is, that my medical friend, Don Francisco, who is a dentist as well as a
doctor, is attending my beloved for professional purposes. I resolved to
call upon Don Francisco, and when Guadalupe has taken her departure with
a packet containing a selection from Cachita's letters, and one of my
own, which I have carefully worded, in case it