"Yes," she answered curtly.

"But, so far as the convent is concerned, you persist in your refusal?"

"Even a noble and kind man would never induce me to take the veil."

Now Quijada lost his composure, and with increasing indignation
exclaimed: "Of all the men on earth there is probably not one who cares
as little for the opinion of an arrogant woman wounded in her vanity.
He stands so far above your judgment that it is insulting him to
undertake his defence. In short, you will not go to the convent?"

"No, and again no!" she protested bitterly. "Besides, your promise ought
to bind you to still greater brevity. But it seems to please your noble
nature to insult a defenceless, ill-treated woman. True, perhaps it is
done on behalf of the mighty man who stands so far above me."

"How far, you will yet learn to your harm," replied Don Luis, once more
master of himself. "As for the child, you still seem determined to
withhold it from the man who will recognise it as his solely on this
condition?"

Barbara thought it time to drop the restraint maintained with so much
difficulty, and half with the intention of letting Charles's favourite
hear the anguish that oppressed her heart, half carried away by the
resentment which filled her soul, she permitted it to overflow and, in
spite of the pain which it caused her to raise her voice, she ceased
whispering, and cried: "You ask to hear what I intend to do? Nothing,
save to keep what is mine! Though I know how much you dislike me, Don