now it only remains
for me to quit a place where my virtue and honesty have so unwarrantably
been called in question."

"When thou dost quit my house," said Don Manuel, "it will be to be shut
up for life in a convent, there to do penance for thy sins, and to
profit by the holy example of that good aunt that died in odour of
sanctity."

Left to herself, Martha began seriously to reflect on the unpleasantness
of her situation; the threat of a conventual seclusion sounded harshly
to her ear. She fancied it would be more advantageous to society that
her good offices should continue in requisition, than that they should
be for ever lost by an untimely adoption of a contemplative life.

"Oh, that ungracious Gomez Arias!" she exclaimed, in her perplexity.

"What wouldst thou with Gomez Arias?" said a well known voice.

She turned, and saw before her the object of her exclamation.

"Blessed be the Virgin! It is he, sure enough. What brings you here,
Sir? Where is my young lady?"

"Where is she?" inquired Gomez Arias, with feigned anxiety.

"Nay, nay, your arts are thrown away on me; I know that Theodora, poor
silly thing, has eloped with you. She loves you, in very truth, she
does; and when a woman really loves, it is unaccountable what a number
of fooleries she will be tempted to commit."

"Well," returned Don Lope, "supposing she has intrusted herself to my
protection, she only followed the dictates of pure affection; surely
there could be no harm in so doing."

"Under favour, Don Lope," observed the duenna, "but there is. Not
forsooth in loving you; but yet, there is a crying injustice, an
unpardonable cruelty, in leaving me to suffer for it without a----"

"Reward, wouldst thou say?" interrupted Don Lope.

"_Valgame San Juan!_ But you misapprehend me strangely. I am not
mercenary; heaven knows my only concern is for my safety, threatened as
I am."

"Threatened! in what possible manner?" demanded Gomez Arias.

"With nothing less than a convent."

"A convent," repeated Don Lope, smiling, "to so devout a dame, methinks,
can have no terrors."

"Aye in troth, I am devout," replied the duenna, "and yet I feel nowise
inclined to be immured between four walls. What merit would there be in
the sacrifice of an old, poor, decrepid piece of mortality such as I.
No, it is the voluntary seclusion of young, rich and beautiful virgins
that delights the divinity."

"Most prudent Martha," gaily replied Gomez Arias, "I g