"Señorita," she said, addressing Doña Helena, "our holy mother abbess wishes to speak to you as well as to Doña Anita without delay. She is waiting for you in her private cell in the company of a holy Franciscan monk."
The maidens exchanged a glance, and a transient flush appeared on Doña Anita's pale cheeks.
"We will follow you, sister," Doña Helena replied. The maidens rose; Doña Helena passed her arm through her companion's, and stooping down, whispered in her ear--
They followed the lay sister, who led them to the Mother Superior's cell, and discreetly withdrew on reaching the door. The abbess appeared to be talking rather excitedly with the Franciscan monk; but, on seeing the two girls, she ceased speaking, and rose.
"Come, my child," she said, as she held out her arms to Doña Anita, "come and thank God who in his infinite goodness has deigned to perform a miracle on your behalf."
The maiden stopped through involuntary emotion, and looked wildly around her. At a sign from the abbess the monk rose, and throwing back his hood at the same time as he fell on his knees before the maiden, he said to her in a voice faltering with emotion--
At the sound of this voice, whose sympathetic notes made all the fibres of her heart vibrate, the maiden suddenly drew herself back, tottered and fell into the arms of Doña Helena, as she shrieked with an accent impossible to describe--
A sob burst from her overcharged bosom, and she burst into tears. She was saved, since the immense joy she so suddenly experienced had not killed her. The Tigrero, as weak as the woman he loved, could only find tears to express all his feelings.
For some minutes the abbess and Doña Helena trembled lest these two beings, already so tried by misfortune, would not find within themselves the necessary strength to resist so terrible an emotion; but a powerful reaction suddenly took place in the tiger-slayer's mind; he sprang up at one leap, and seized in his arms the maiden, who, on her side, was making efforts to rush to him--
"Anita, dear Anita," he cried, "I have found you again at last; oh, now no human power will be able to separate us!"
"Never, never!" she murmured, as she let her head fall on the young man's shoulder; "Martial, my beloved Martial, protect me, save me!"