seen you before?"

Lopez paused for a moment in surprise at Katie's words, and still
more at her manner.

"I've only arrived this instant," said he, "and I've come here to
save you from these brigands, and congratulate you and myself on my
good-fortune in finding you. The other ladies I cannot find. I hope,
senorita, that you have not suffered much while here a prisoner in
the hands of these ruffians?"

"Oh no," said Katie.

"This room is not fit for you," continued Lopez, "and you shall at
once be removed to a more comfortable apartment."

Such a proposal as this was by no means agreeable to Katie, who liked
the idea of the secret passage, and did not wish to go out of reach
of it.

"Oh, do not take me away from here!" said she. "I assure you I prefer
this room to any other. In fact, I am quite attached to it."

Lopez laughed.

"Really," said he, "I had no idea that a prisoner could become
attached to such a gloomy dungeon as this. Ah, senorita, you are
jesting. I assure you, however, that there are better rooms than this
in the castle, and in a few minutes you shall be taken to one. You
shall also be provided with proper attendants; for there are
women about the castle who can wait on you."

Lopez was so earnest and determined that Katie saw plainly the
uselessness of any further objections, and therefore murmured a few
civil words of thanks.

Lopez looked profoundly disappointed. He had come in the glory of a
conqueror--more, of a deliverer; to free Katie from the grasp of a
remorseless tyrant; to break in pieces her chains; to snatch her from
the jaws of death. He had expected to see her on the verge of
despair; he had fully counted on being received by her in wild and
eager excitement, almost like a messenger from Heaven. It was upon
all this that he had counted, as he had toiled to effect her rescue.
His task had been by no means light. Fortune had favored him, or else
his toil would all have been unavailing. His rescue of her in so
short a time was therefore very near the miraculous. And now as he
came to her, after all his efforts, after all this brilliant success,
with these hopes and expectations, he found his arrival greeted
in the coolest manner, and treated as the most commonplace thing in
the world. More than this, instead of finding Katie languishing in
her dungeon, he found her actually unwilling to leave it, and
pretending that she had an "attachment for it." Of course, all this
was prete