paid for. I see nothing particular in your having gone to the Troyas'
house. I fancy that Don Inocencio, under his cloak of piety, is
something of a mischief-maker. What has he to do with the matter?"

"We have reached a point, Senor Don Cayetano, in which it is necessary
to take a decisive resolution. I must see Rosario and speak with her."

"See her, then!"

"But they will not let me," answered the engineer, striking the table
with his clenched hand. "Rosario is kept a prisoner."

"A prisoner!" repeated the savant incredulously. "The truth is that I do
not like her looks or her hair, and still less the vacant expression
in her beautiful eyes. She is melancholy, she talks little, she
weeps--friend Don Jose, I greatly fear that the girl may be attacked by
the terrible malady to which so many of the members of my family have
fallen victims."

"A terrible malady! What is it?"

"Madness--or rather mania. Not a single member of my family has been
free from it. I alone have escaped it."

"You! But leaving aside the question of madness," said Rey, with
impatience, "I wish to see Rosario."

"Nothing more natural. But the isolation in which her mother keeps
her is a hygienic measure, dear Pepe, and the only one that has been
successfully employed with the various members of my family. Consider