meaning was
obvious, he felt almost afraid to convey it by language.

Theodora's distress increased, and her fond arms that had till now
encircled her lover's neck, loosened their hold, whilst her head drooped
despondingly upon her bosom.

After a short pause--"My love," continued Gomez Arias, "you must decide,
and instantly, we have but a short time more to remain."

"Don Lope," exclaimed the afflicted girl, with impassioned eagerness,
"pity! oh pity my horrible situation, and do not tempt me with a crime,
to which my own fond woman's heart urges me but too strongly. No, do not
exert that uncontrollable power which you possess over my very soul, to
sink me deeper into the abyss of misery, that must embitter my future
existence. Do not force me to destroy the tranquillity and comfort of a
venerable parent--of that parent, whose greatest fault is his excessive
fondness and solicitude for his child. Though by his last determination
he has completed my misery, he is nevertheless more deserving of pity
than reproach. Alas! while he destroys my felicity and repose, he
cherishes the idea, that he is laying the foundation of the future
happiness of his child."

"Yes!" cried Gomez Arias, smiling bitterly, "by forcing her to waste her
life in a cloister."

"No," exclaimed Theodora, "he does not suppose me capable of such a
terrible resolution; he is ignorant that my affections are
irretrievably bestowed on another, fondly imagining that I shall not
long be insensible to the merits of the husband he has chosen."

She fell on the ground, and clasping the knees of her lover, proceeded
with redoubled emotion--"Oh, Lope, I know but too well my own weakness!
Take, therefore, compassion on my distress, urge me no further, and do
not avail yourself of the tenderness and self-devotion of one who adores
you, to render her a cruel and delinquent daughter."

Gomez Arias was powerfully struck with the earnestness of her manner; he
never imagined he should meet with such opposition from a heart so
enthusiastically devoted. He could not but admire the generosity and
nobleness of feeling which thus voluntarily condemned itself to a life
of solitude and despair, rather than deviate in the smallest degree from
moral rectitude. Yet he was inwardly mortified at her superiority, and
would fain have persuaded himself that her scruples proceeded rather
from a deficiency of passion than from a sense of honor and filial
duty. He looked on her w