Sheet after sheet was
commenced and destroyed. Tears drowned out the efforts of her pen,
and she knew not what to do. She bit her fair lips in vexation; what
should she write? Once more she read his note, and full of the
feelings it induced, tried to answer it. But in vain; her sheet was
bathed in tears before she had written one line.
"It is but the truth," she said, to herself, "and I do not care if
he knows it."
As she thus spoke, she once more seized the pen and wrote:
"In vain have I essayed to write to you. Let these tears be your
answer! ISABELLA GONZALES."
If the beautiful girl had studied for months to have answered the
letter of him who loved her so well, it would have been impossible
for her to have penned a more touching, more truthful, or more
eloquent reply than this. Striking a tiny silver bell by her side, a
slave approached, and was despatched with this note at once to the
palace of the governor-general.
"Why, sister!" said Ruez, entering the room and speaking at the same
time, "you look as if you had been weeping. Pray, are you ill?"
"Nay, brother, I am not ill. It was but a slight affair; it is all
over now. Where's Carlo, Ruez?"
The attempt to turn the course of conversation to the dog, was not
unobserved by the intelligent boy.
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