ath. This scene was terrible to him in many ways;
but, above all, it was terrible to see what love was thus lavished on
this comparative stranger, when he would risk his life, and had risked
his life, for a single smile.

"Think," said he, "what it is that you ask. The moment I let him go, that
moment I myself am a criminal, I myself am condemned. I must fly--I must
become a ruined man! Ruined? Worse: dishonored, disgraced in my native
land; I who have had high ambitions, and have won no mean distinctions.
And yet do you ask this of me?"

Katie bowed her head down; she kissed his hands, and in tremulous tones
said,

"Oh, I must--I must! I do!"

Lopez was trembling from head to foot. He himself could now scarcely
speak from agitation.

"And may I," he said, in a low voice--"may I--ask--nothing from you--when
I give up--honor, life, hope, all--for your sake?"

There was a suggestiveness in this question which flashed at once in all
its fullest meaning into Katie's mind. She dropped his hands; she sank
upon the floor; she bowed her head tremblingly and despairingly. Lopez
looked at her with an agitation equal to her own, and a despair only
less. She loved another--she could never love him; she loved another--oh,
how vehemently, how dearly she loved him! Yet she _must_ be his!

"One hour was allowed him," murmured Lopez--"one hour to prepare. Much of
that hour has already passed. Say, will you save his life? and shall I
set him free? Say, shall I go to ruin? Say, will you give up as much for
me as I am ready to give up for you? Quick--another minute, and it may be
too late!"

Katie started up wildly.

"Go! go!" she said, in a hot, feverish whisper. "Haste--fly--save him!"

"You promise?" said Lopez.

"Oh, my God! yes!" cried Katie, and fell senseless to the floor.

"See to your mistress," said Lopez, in a faltering voice, as he went
outside and met the attendant there.

Then Lopez went away, not to free Harry, for he was already free, but to
a lonely room, where he flung himself on his face on the stony floor, and
lay there long, weeping like a child.

For the agony of this man at winning Katie thus was equal to that of
Katie over her act of self-sacrifice.

CHAPTER XLVII.

IN WHICH LOPEZ USES HIS ADVANTAGE TO THE UTTERMOST, AND KATIE SINKS INTO
DEEPER DESPAIR.

And so Lopez had resolved to gratify both his love and his vengeance. He
was determined at all hazards to force Katie to be his wife