be almost as if I were with you, and
could say them quite close to you--like this--I love you!"

She had drawn his hand gently down to her while she was speaking, and
she whispered the last words into his ear with a delicate little kiss
that sent a thrill straight to his heart.

"You are not afraid any more now, are you?" she asked, as she let him
go, and he straightened himself suddenly as a man drawing back from
something he both fears and loves.

He opened and shut his hands quickly two or three times, as some nervous
men do, as if trying to shake them clear from a spell, or an influence.
Then he began to walk up and down, talking to her.

"I am at my wit's end," he said, speaking fast and not looking at her
face, as he turned and turned again. "I cannot send you to
Villagarcia--there are things that neither you nor I could do, even for
each other, things you would not have me do for you, Dolores. It would
be ruin and disgrace to my adopted mother and Quixada--it might be
worse, for the King can call anything he pleases high treason. It is
impossible to take you there without some one knowing it--can I carry
you in my arms? There are grooms, coachmen, servants, who will tell
anything under examination--under torture! How can I send you there?"

"I would not go," answered Dolores quietly.

"I cannot send you to a convent, either," he went on, for he had taken
her answer for granted, as lovers do who trust each other. "You would be
found in a day, for the King knows everything. There is only one place,
where I am master--"

He stopped short, and grew very pale again, looking at the wall, but
seeing something very far away.

"Where?" asked Dolores. "Take me there! Oh, take me where you are
master--where there is no king but you, where we can be together all our
lives, and no one can come between us!"

He stood motionless, staring at the wall, contemplating in amazement the
vastness of the temptation that arose before him. Dolores could not
understand, but she did what a loving women does when the man she loves
seems to be in a great distress. She came and stood beside him, passing
one arm through his and pressing it tenderly, without a word. There are
times when a man needs only that to comfort him and give him strength.
But even a woman does not always know them.

Very slowly he turned to her, almost as if he were trying to resist her
eyes and could not. He took his arm from hers and his hands framed her
fa