endearing could be pronounced.

"Roque," she cried, in a tone and manner that bespoke her possessed of
more resolution than could be gathered from the expression of her
countenance, "Roque, I will retire; be silent, and let me see you
again.--Yes," she added with a voice of presageful import, "it is better
I should not see him more!"

She then hastily retired from the spot, and sought the way to her
apartment. That feeling so deeply rooted in the female heart--the desire
of probing a lover's perfidy to the utmost, determined her to follow
the valet's advice. No, she dreaded not the most disastrous
consequences; for, alas! what has betrayed woman to fear, when she seeks
justice from the man for whom she has sacrificed all! Is it death? Ah!
it is her best refuge and only consolation!

CHAPTER VII.

Sierpes apacienta el pecho
De una muger ofendida.

_Moreto._

Ah taci! ogni parola
Mi drizza i crini; assei dicesti; basta
Basta cosi, non proseguir.

_Monti_.

Roque made a precipitate retreat from the garden; for, anxious as the
poor fellow was to render any service to Theodora, he still felt no
inclination to incur thereby the displeasure of his master, and draw
upon himself the full measure of his indignation. The valet resolved to
keep a strict silence respecting his interview with Theodora, and he
entertained a belief that the fears of the unfortunate girl would induce
her to follow a similar course. Thus he flattered himself there was
nothing to apprehend farther than the danger of an accidental meeting.

Theodora meantime, a prey to a thousand distracting fears, had locked
herself within her chamber, in a miserable state of hopelessness.
Tormented with various conflicting passions, she now boldly resolved to
meet her perjured lover, and demand an explanation of his cruel and
unnatural conduct; but again she was suddenly checked by an instinctive
dread which seemed to freeze her powers of action. She despondingly
threw herself upon the couch, that gaudy but unconscious witness of her
sorrows, and as the briny drops fell fast from their sad fountains, and
bedewed the rich silken covering, she exclaimed--

"Yes, it was he himself that I beheld last night."

These few words conveyed a portion of that exquisite anguish that gave
them birth.

It was a fearful idea: she had seen her lover a nocturnal visitor to
that