--- No,----".

"Well, but, good Lisarda, what is his name?"

"Oh, he bears a most glorious name; but now I think on't, what a
thoughtless, silly girl I am; surely I was to bring you a beautiful
dress, that my lady ordered for you: sweet lady, you must forgive me; I
will run forthwith and rectify my fault."

Then, without waiting for a reply, she flew out of the room. Theodora
felt a strange sensation at the intelligence she had just received. A
wedding was shortly to be solemnized, at which her presence would
naturally be required, and the idea of witnessing a ceremony which would
bring to her mind a train of painful associations, failed not to
increase her agitation. Then she was lost in conjectures respecting the
bridegroom, and she felt impressed with a belief that he could be no
other than Don Antonio de Leyva. She felt a dread at the prospect of
appearing before him, whom her venerable parent had chosen for her
partner in life.

Theodora strove to drive away such unpleasant images, and to divert her
attention she hurried to the garden. There she walked to the same spot
where the resemblance of her lover had appeared the preceding night;
feeling a strange indefinable delight in visiting a spot endeared by the
awful visitation of her beloved and never to be forgotten Gomez Arias.
In the garden, therefore, she remained some time, now walking amidst
fragrant avenues of orange and citron, now resting on the marble edge of
the fountain, refreshing her hands and face in the transparent liquid,
or gazing on the clear and sparkling pebbles embedded on the golden
sand. Her sighs seemed attuned to the soft but melancholy sound of the
murmuring fountain, and she was insensibly falling into her wonted train
of reverie, when she was startled by the noise of advancing footsteps;
she raised her eyes and perceived a man coming directly across the path
on which she was standing; to her utter amazement, she beheld in the
disturber of her meditations the person, the very person of Roque. The
valet himself was rivetted to the spot at this mutual recognition, and
his features exhibited a curious amalgamation of sensations difficult to
be defined. He crossed himself thrice, uttered a faint ejaculation, and,
with wandering eyes and open mouth, he looked and looked again, as if
doubting the reality of what he saw. Being at length perfectly satisfied
that it was Theodora herself, the unhappy and forsaken victim of his
master, he made a