'"
"And so, Torres," said Joam Garral, "I shall have nothing to fear
from you if I give the answer you require?"
"Nothing, for neither you nor I will have any interest in talking
about the matter."
"Neither you nor I?" asked Joam Garral. "It is not with money, then,
that your silence is to be bought?"
"No! No matter how much you offered me!"
"What do you want, then?"
"Joam Garral," replied Torres, "here is my proposal. Do not be in a
hurry to reply by a formal refusal. Remember that you are in my
power."
"What is this proposal?" asked Joam.
Torres hesitated for a moment.
The attitude of this guilty man, whose life he held in his hands, was
enough to astonish him. He had expected a stormy discussion and
prayers and tears. He had before him a man convicted of the most
heinous of crimes, and the man never flinched.
At length, crossing his arms, he said:
"You have a daughter!--I like her--and I want to marry her!"
Apparently Joam Garral expected anything from such a man, and was as
quiet as before.
"And so," he said, "the worthy Torres is anxious to enter the family
of a murderer and a thief?"
"I am the sole judge of what it suits me to do," said Torres.
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