Once only Morales's features contracted for a single instant, as convulsed by some spasm.
It was the recollection of Marie's passionate tears, the night of the festival; and yet she had shed them on _his_ bosom.

How could she be guilty?
And the spasm passed.
"I have heard you, Don Luis," he said, so calmly, as Garcia ceased, that the latter started.

"If there be truth in this strange tale, I thank you for imparting it: if it be false--if you have dared pollute my ears with one word that has no foundation, cross not my path again, lest I be tempted to turn and crush you as I would a loathsome reptile, who in very wantonness has stung me." He turned from him rapidly, traversed the brief space, and disappeared within his house.

Don Luis looked after him with a low, fiendish laugh, and plunged once more into the gardens.
"Is the Senora within ?" Inquired Don Ferdinand, encountering his wife's favorite attendant at the entrance of Marie's private suit of rooms; and though his cheek was somewhat pale, his voice was firm as usual.

The reply was in the negative; the Senora was in the gardens.
"Alone?
Why are you not with her as usual, Manuella ?" "I was with her, my Lord; she only dismissed me ten minutes ago." Without rejoinder, Don Ferdinand turned in the direction she had pointed out.