relative positions. Give your
consent to become my wife, and these papers shall be destroyed on the
instant."

"Never!" was the firm response that delighted my ears.

"Never!" echoed Ijurra; "then dread the consequences. I shall obtain
orders for your arrest, and as soon as this horde of Yankee ruffians has
been driven from the country, the property shall be mine."

"Ha, ha, ha!" came the scornful laugh in reply--"ha, ha, ha! you
mistake, Rafael Ijurra; you are not so far-sighted as you deem yourself;
you forget that my father's land lies on the _Texan_ side of the Rio
Grande; and ere that horde of Yankee ruffians, as you term them, be
driven out, they will establish this river for their boundary. Where,
then, will lie the power of confiscation? Not with you, and your
cowardly master. Ha, ha, ha!"

The reply maddened Ijurra still further, for he saw the probability of
what had been said. His face became livid, and he seemed to lose all
control of himself.

"Even so," he shouted with the addition of a fierce oath--"even so,
_you_ shall never inherit those lands. Listen, Isolina de Vargas!
listen to another secret I have for you: know, senorita, that you are
not the lawful daughter of Don Ramon!"

I saw the proud girl start, as if struck with an arrow.

"I have the proofs of what I repeat," continued Ijurra; "and even should
the United States triumph, its laws cannot make _you_ legitimate. You
are not the heiress of the hacienda de Vargas!"

As yet not a word from Isolina. She sat silent and motionless, but I
could tell by the rising and falling of her shoulders that a terrible
storm was gathering in her bosom.

The fiend continued:--

"Now, madame, you may know how disinterested it was of me to offer you
marriage: nay, more, I never loved you; if I told you so, it was a
lie--"

He never lied in his life as he was doing at that moment. His face
bespoke the falsehood of his words. It was the utterance of purest
spleen. I read in his look the unmistakable expression of jealousy.
Coarse as the passion may have been, he loved her--oh! how could it have
been otherwise?

"Love you, indeed! Ha, ha, ha! love you--the daughter of a poor
Indian--a _margarita_!"

The climax had come. The heaving bosom could bear silence no longer;
the insult was unendurable.

"Base wretch!" cried she, in a voice of compressed agony, "stand aside
from my path!"

"Not yet," answered Ijurra, grasping the bridle more f