Chapter 55

“I could do nothing else,” explained Don Antonio. “The excellentissimo and señores will appreciate my position most unfortunate. I could not repulse the advances of Señora Ramirez—for she was a lady, and I a nobleman of Spain. But I did not lova her! _Nombre de Dios_, no! My love was all for my old _amigo_, Ramirez! Struggle as I would I became with her more and more involv-ed. I feared of her love the very intensity! I could not go back! And I could not go on! “At last she demanded that I poison her husband in ord…