"But," continued Fonseca, "let this pass: I come to my story and my
request. Do you, or do you not know, that I have been for some time
attached to Beatriz Coello!"

"Beatriz," replied Calderon, abstractedly, with an altered countenance,
"it is a sweet name--it was my mother's!"

"Your mother's! I thought to have heard her name was Mary Sandalen?"

"True--Mary Beatriz Sandalen," replied Calderon, indifferently. "But
proceed. I heard, after your last visit to Madrid, when, owing to my own
absence in Portugal, I was not fortunate enough to see you, that you had
offended the duke by desiring an alliance unsuitable to your birth. Who,
then, is this Beatriz Coello?"

"An orphan of humble origin and calling. In infancy she was left to the
care of a woman who, I believe, had been her nurse; they were settled in
Seville, and the old gouvernante's labours in embroidery maintained them
both till Beatriz was fourteen. At that time the poor woman was disabled
by a stroke of palsy from continuing her labours, and Beatriz, good
child, yearning to repay the obligation she had received, in her turn
sought to maintain her protectress. She possessed the gift of a voice
wonderful for its sweetness. This gift came to the knowledge of the
superintendent of the theatre at Seville: he made her the most
advantageous proposals to enter upon the stage. Beatriz; innocent child,
was unaware of the perils of that profession: she accepted eagerly the
means that would give comfort to the declining life of her only
friend--she became an actress. At that time we were quartered in
Seville, to keep guard on the suspected Moriscos."