دوشیزه لولیتا

CHAPTER TWO

Senorita Lolita

‘Will you marry me’ began Don Diego after Lolita sat down.

‘Senor,’ she cried, ‘this is your first visit! You’re too quick.’

‘Senorita,’ he replied, ‘must I ride over here for weeks before you say “yes”?’

Lolita stood up angrily. ‘Don Diego, you must win my heart. And if you send your servant to play the guitar to me - yes, I heard that! - I’ll drop hot water on him from my window.’

She ran into the house, and her mother followed.

Don Carlos hurried out. ‘Women are always difficult at first!’ he laughed. ‘Next time my daughter will be nicer to you.’ He shook hands warmly with Don Diego, who got on his horse and rode slowly away.

At the same time, Dona Catalina was speaking to Lolita inside the house. ‘He’s rich, from an important family, with a fine face,’ she told her daughter.

‘But no heart,’ cried Lolita. ‘I never want to see him again.’

Just then, her father arrived. ‘You will see him again,’ he cried, ‘and be more friendly, too.’ With that, he left the room.

At siesta time, while everyone in the house slept, Lolita went into the back garden.

‘If I marry Don Diego, it’ll help my father. But I just can’t do it!’

She lay down on a seat to rest. But then she felt someone touch her arm. She opened her eyes and sat up. A man stood near her in a dark cloak with a black mask over his face.

‘Oh, you’re.’

‘Zorro, lovely Senorita. I came to your father’s house to rest, but then I saw you here, so beautiful! I had to speak to you.’

‘I don’t know why other men don’t feel the same,’ said Lolita, her face reddening.

‘Do you have no suitors?’

‘One. But he doesn’t like to court me.’

‘What a stupid man! Courting lights the fire of love.’

‘Senor, go now. Perhaps somebody will see you.’

‘They’ll kill me if they catch me. But I can’t leave before I kiss your hand.’

Lolita hurriedly gave him her hand to kiss. Then she ran into the house. Through the window she watched him ride away. ‘What a man’ she thought. ‘Why can’t Don Diego be like him?’

That evening, while the family sat at dinner, Zorro came back. ‘Zorro’ cried Don Carlos as the outlaw entered the room. Dona Catalina fainted.

‘I haven’t come to steal from you. Senor. You’re a good man. I just need food and drink.’

‘You’ll have it. But can I take my wife to her room?’

‘Yes. But your daughter stays here. I want to be sure that you don’t run away.’

So Don Carlos carried his wife upstairs. On the way, he sent a servant to the fort to ask the soldiers there for help.

At the same time, Zorro was speaking to Lolita. ‘I had to come back to see you.’

‘Please never come again.’

Don Carlos arrived back. He did not want Zorro to leave before the soldiers arrived, so he asked him about his adventures. Zorro ate, drank, and talked. Lolita listened interestedly.

After some time Don Carlos got up. ‘I’ll tell the servants to pack some food for you,’ he said.

While he was out of the room, Lolita hurriedly told Zorro, ‘My father has sent word to the fort, I’m sure, and the soldiers are coming. Quickly! Go!’

Just then, Don Carlos came back. ‘Here’s your food for the road,’ he said. ‘But before you go, one last story, please.’

‘No, Senor,’ cried Zorro. ‘The soldiers from the fort will surely be here any minute.’ He pushed over the candles on the table and at once the room went dark.

‘Until later,’ said Zorro softly in Lolita’s ear. Then he ran to the back door, and called his horse. Lolita heard the sound of his horse galloping away. ‘He’s escaped’ she thought.

Soon after that, Sergeant Gonzales and his soldiers rode up to the front door. They left at once, hurrying after Zorro. Not long after, Captain Ramon arrived. When he saw Lolita, he decided to wait in the house for the soldiers to come back.

‘That Zorro is a coward’ the captain said to Don Carlos while he sat with the family.

Suddenly the door of the tall closet in the room opened, and Zorro came out of it, his sword in his hand.

‘Take back those words,’ he cried, ‘or fight!’

‘What, But we heard you escape’ cried Don Carlos.

‘My horse knows when to gallop away without me!’ laughed Zorro, ‘And when to come back quietly for me, too.’

‘You won’t escape me’ cried Captain Ramon.

The two men fought, but Zorro soon put his sword through his enemy’s shoulder.

Captain Ramon fell to the floor and Zorro put his sword away.

‘Don’t worry. He’ll live!’ he laughed. And with one last look at Lolita, he left the house, jumped on his horse, which was waiting, and galloped away.

Soon after this, Don Diego arrived back at the Pulido family’s house. He walked in worriedly.

‘I heard that Zorro was here,’ he explained to Don Carlos. ‘So I came to see that you were all alive. But now I understand that my journey wasn’t necessary.’

Don Diego was not happy to find Captain Ramon there, nor that Lolita was washing his hurt shoulder. After she finished this job, she went and sat by the fire, and Don Diego went to sit and talk with her there.

Across the room, Captain Ramon quietly told Don Carlos, ‘I’d like to marry your daughter, Senor. Does she have any suitors?’