I know why
you came here. Do you imagine you haven't been seen from this very
balcony hovering about here every afternoon, lurking in the road like a
spy? You are discovered, sir."
The shy Rafael thought the balcony was collapsing underneath his feet.
He shivered in abject terror, drew the fur cloak tighter around him,
without knowing what he was about, and shook his head in energetic
denial.
"So it's not true, you fraud?" she said, with comic indignation. "You
deny that since we met up at the Hermitage you have been taking all your
walks in this neighborhood? _Dios mio_! What a monster of falsehood have
we here? And how brazenly he lies."
And Rafael, vanquished by her frank merriment, had finally to smile,
confessing his crime with a loud laugh.
"You're probably surprised at what I do and say," continued Leonora
drawing closer to him, leaning a shoulder against his with unaffected
carelessness, as if she were with a girl friend. "I'm not like most
women. A fine thing it would be for me, with the life I lead, to play
the hypocrite!... My poor aunt thinks I'm crazy because I say just what
I feel; in my time I've been much liked and much disliked on account of
the mania I have for not concealing anything.
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