ourage of despair, and was
overwhelming Gomez Arias with a torrent of abuse. Theodora had receded
from the light to hide her emotion from her father's sight, which
fortunately was so impaired with age, as not to afford any material
impediment to her concealment. Roque assumed an air of saucy assurance,
and his master appeared leaning against the wall with the most perfect
coolness and self-possession. Don Manuel and his guest stared at the
intruders for some time, before either attempted to speak, till at
length Don Rodrigo broke silence, with an ejaculation of surprise.

"Don Lope Gomez Arias!" exclaimed the astonished cavalier.

"Don Lope Gomez Arias!" re-echoed Monteblanco. "It is your rival,
then.--What is the meaning of this, Martha?"

"Your honor may ask the gentleman himself," responded the duenna; "I
know nothing of him, but that he is the most daring and impertinent
man"--(Martha indulged in the privilege granted her by Don Lope); "the
most unceremonious, head-strong, self-sufficient cavalier I ever met
with--Virgen Santa!--What a disturbance he has raised in the house. Then
there's that most impudent rascal of a valet; he is the principal cause
of the commotion, and I humbly crave and hope your honor will give him
ample reason to repent his impudence."

"Repent my impudence!" quoth Roque, "thou accursed _bruja_;[15] it would
be more meritorious to chop off thy slanderous tongue!"

Here the duenna proceeded to pour forth a fresh volley of words, without
any positive explanation, as is generally the practice when people are
anxious to gain time, and collect their senses.

"Peace, woman!" interrupted Gomez Arias, in the middle of her harangue;
"this disturbance, as you term it, is of your own doing; had you behaved
with more courtesy to a stranger, you might have saved the impropriety
my valet has been guilty of towards you; an impropriety for which he
shall most assuredly suffer in due time."--Here he cast a terrible look
on the astonished Roque, who perfectly well knew he was doomed to suffer
for his master's vagaries; and that the failure of his adventures must
recoil invariably on his unfortunate head. Yet he looked sorely puzzled
how to find out the nature of the impropriety he had committed against
the superannuated dame who dealt him such abundance of vilipendiary
epithets.

All this time the good Don Manuel was patiently waiting for an
explanation, and the more the duenna explained the more perplex