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“I do love you, Anacleto,” she replied, “and I have also known of your love for a long time. But there is something in my heart which I cannot impart to you; only I ask you, for the love you bear me, do not leave me, and do not ask me why I say this to you.”

After this appeal I could not leave her, nor did I ask her to tell me her secret. Torcuato and I were friendly, but not as we had been before this difference. I had no evil thoughts of him; I loved him and was with him continually; but from the moment I announced to him that I had changed my mind about going to the estancia, and was silent when he demanded the reason, there was a something in him which made it different between us. I could not open my heart to him about Elaria, and sometimes I thought that he also had a secret which he had no intention of sharing with me. This coldness did not, however, distress me very much, so great was the happiness I now experienced, knowing that I possessed Elaria’s love. He was much away from the house, being fond of amusements, and he had also begun to gamble. About three months passed in this way, when one morning Torcuato, who was saddling his horse to go out, said, “Will you come with me, to-day, Anacleto?”

“I do not care to go,” I answered.

“Look, Anacleto,” said he; “once you were always ready to accompany me to a race or dance or cattle-marking. Why have you ceased to care for these things? Are you growing devout before your time, or does my company no longer please you?”

“It is best to tell him everything and have done with secrets,” said I to myself, and so replied “Since you ask me, Torcuato, I will answer you frankly. It is true that I now take less pleasure than formerly in these pastimes; but you have not guessed the reason rightly.”

“What then is this reason of which you speak?”

“Since you cannot guess it,” I replied, “know that it is love.”

“Love for whom? ” he asked quickly, and turning very pale.

“Do you need ask? Elaria,” I replied.

I had scarcely uttered the name before he turned on me full of rage.

“Elaria!” he exclaimed.”Do you dare tell me of love for Elaria! But you are only a blind fool, and do not know that I am going to marry her myself.”

“Are you mad, Torcuato, to talk of marrying your sister?

“She is no more my sister than you are my brother,” he returned.”I,” he continued, striking his breast passionately, “am the only child of my father, Loreto Silva. Elaria, whose mother died in giving her birth, was adopted by my parents. And because she is going to be my wife, I am willing that she should have a share of the property; but you, a miserable foundling, why were you lifted up so high? Was it not enough that you were clothed and fed till you came to man’s estate? Not a hand’s-breadth of the estancia land should be yours by right, and now you presume to speak of love for Elaria.”

My blood was on fire with so many insults, but I remembered all the benefits I had received from his father, and did not raise my hand against him. Without more words he left me. I then hastened to Elaria and told her what had passed.

“This,” I said, “is the secret you would not impart to me. Why, when you knew these things, was I kept in ignorance?”