u
must know all about it."

"Oh yes, all--all about it."

"And you must have been all over it in every direction."

"Oh yes, all over it--all--all over it--thousand--thousand times, and
in every parts and spots."

"It's such a strange old castle," continued Katie, who was very
anxious to find out how far the knowledge of Dolores went, and
whether she knew anything about the secret passage; "it's such a
strange old castle; it's like those that one reads of in the old
romances."

"Yes, oh, vara, vara," said Dolores; "like the feudal Gothic
castellos of the old--old charming romances; like the castello of
the Cid; and you go up the towers and into the turrets, and you walk
over the top, past the battlementa, and you spy, spy, spy deep down
into the courts; and you dream, and dream, and dream. And when I was
a vara leetl child, I did use to do nothing else but wander about,
and dream, and dream, and get lost, and could not find my way back.
Oh, I could tell you of a thousand things. I could talk all the day
of that bright, bright time when my padre was like a noble; so rich
he was, and living in his grand castello."

"And did you really wander about so? and did you really get lost so?"
asked Katie, who was still following up her idea, being intent upon
learning how much Dolores knew about the inner secrets of the
castle--"such as where, now," she added, eagerly, "where would you
get lost?"

"Oh, everywhere," said Dolores, "and all over. For there are halls
that open into gallerias; and gallerias that open into rooms; and
rooms into closets, and these into other halls; and grand apartments
of states; and states beds-chambers; and there are the upper rooms
for guests and domesticos; and down below them are rooms for the
outer servitores; and far, far down, far down underground, there are
dungeons--fearful, fearful places with darkness and r-r-rats!--and
that is all that you do find when you come to move about in this
wonderful, this maravelloso castello."

"And have you been all through the vaults?" asked Katie, trying to
lead Dolores on farther.

"Yes," said Dolores, "all--all--through all the vaults, every single
one; and there was an ancient servitor who showed me all the
mysteria--an ancient, ancient, venerable man he was--and he showed me
all the secrets, till all the castello was as known to me as thees
room; and so I did become lost no more, and we did use to wander
together through dark and lonely ways,