“Nina thought to see you in the pit of the opera-house, and made preparations for a triumph in her box; but she was in despair when she heard no performance was to be given.  In the evening the count told her that your passports had been returned with the order to leave in three days.  The false creature praised her lover’s prudence to his face, but she cursed him in her heart.

“She knew you would not dare to see her, and when you left without writing her a note, she said you had received secret orders not to hold any further communications with her.  She was furious with the viceroy.

“’If Casanova had had the courage to ask me to go with him, I would have gone,’ said she.

“Your man told her of your fortunate escape from three assassins.  In the evening she congratulated Ricla on the circumstance, but he swore he knew nothing about it.  Nina did not believe him.  You may thank God from the bottom of your heart that you ever left Spain alive after knowing Nina.  She would have cost you your life at last, and she punishes me for having given her life.”

“What!  Are you her mother?”

“Yes; Nina, that horrible woman, is my daughter.”

“Really?  Everybody says you are her sister.”

“That is the horrible part of it, everybody is right.”

“Explain yourself”

“Yes, though it is to my shame.  She is my sister and my daughter, for she is the daughter of my father.”

“What! your father loved you?”

“I do not know whether the scoundrel loved me, but he treated me as his wife.  I was sixteen then.  She is the daughter of the crime, and God knows she is sufficient punishment for it.  My father died to escape her vengeance; may he also escape the vengeance of God.  I should have strangled her in her cradle, but maybe I shall strangle her yet.  If I do not, she will kill me.”

I remained dumb at the conclusion of this dreadful story, which bore all the marks of truth.

“Does Nina know that you are her mother?”

“Her own father told her the secret when she was twelve, after he had initiated her into the life she has been living ever since.  He would have made her a mother in her turn if he had not killed himself the same year, maybe to escape the gallows.”

“How did the Conte de Ricla fall in love with her?”

“It is a short story and a curious one.  Two years ago she came to Barcelona from Portugal, and was placed in one of the ballets for the sake of her pretty face, for as to talents she had none, and could only do the rebaltade (a sort of skip and pirouette) properly.

“The first evening she danced she was loudly applauded by the pit, for as she did the rebaltade she shewed her drawers up to her waist.  In Spain any actress who shews her drawers on the stage is liable to a fine of a crown.  Nina knew nothing about this, and, hearing the applause, treated the audience to another skip of the same kind, but at the end of the ballet she was told to pay two crowns for her immodesty.  Nina cursed and swore, but she had to give in.  What do you think she did to elude the law, and at the same time avenge herself?”