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JOSÉ PEON Y CONTRERAS.

the future. There are moments, when I feel that I shall go mad!

S.: You tremble, are cold—Blanca, calm yourself.

B.: The memory of this misfortune haunts me.

S.: You still insist——!

B.: You attempt to conceal it from me, in vain.... Last night I overheard, when Fortun announced to you the death of this—of this marquis.

S.: Well! What of that?—Man’s days are numbered. His hour of punishment arrives.

B.: Moreover, I can not conceal it from you, Sancho; the passing moments seem to me eternities.—We cannot continue living thus.—It is necessary that God should sanctify this union.

S.: Soon—very soon.

B.: This is not my house. Much as I love you, much as I have sacrificed my dignity upon the altar of this love, I cannot be tranquil. I feel something here, in my breast, of which I had no idea before,—and—you see, I cannot venture to raise my eyes in your presence.—The blush, which inflames my cheek, is the shame of guilt——

S.: You, guilty——?

B.: Just the same!—What am I, here?—When I am alone no one beholds me, but I would even hide me from myself.—If, in snatching me from my home, you have taken advantage of my love, do not sport with my weakness.

S.: Blanca, God reads our hearts——

B.: Yes, and because God

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