In spite of his obsession with Doña Beatriz, the Condesito set out to maintain his normal lifestyle. He would continue going to the theatre, taking walks and attending his normal aristocratic meetings. However, it seemed that wherever he went he would always encounter Elisa. Each time they met she was using her various wiles to try and capture the young man´s interest. In fact, she was using everything she had ever learned about attracting a man´s attention to try to sway his thoughts in her direction. But he, firm and cold as stone, appeared oblivious, showing no sign of awareness or understanding of the pursuit in progress.

In spite of the Count´s apparent antipathy Elisa did not lose hope. In fact she felt spurred to try even harder. She had always been the greatest exponent in the art of romance and seduction but now she was being called upon to reach a pinnacle she had never attempted before. But still this was not enough to encourage the young Count to offer the slightest sign that he was inclined to surrender himself to her charms.

Elisa, by this time, was now more polished than ever in her appearance and displayed a new and rich finery. She had sharpened her ingenuity so that in all social gatherings she evoked the greatest charm in all her encounters and conversations. She attracted in her web all the most eligible men of greatest standing, in whichever capacity. She surrounded herself with the most vast and sparkling court ever, and still she could not conquer the Count´s stony indifference.

She gave him the most clear and flattering samples of her predilection. Left incarcerated a thousand times in a circle of admirers she would break out and, in the dances, take hold of the unwitting Count´s arm. For him there were the sweetest looks, the most affectionate smiles. All those signs which, together, would usually reveal, even to the most vacant of men, that love was in the air, without ever desecrating the limits of modesty and decorum. The Conde was not responding with avoidance, though this might have offered a fate less cruel. He was responding with gratitude, with extreme politeness and with such mannered observance which, in itself, was entirely distracting for the poor Marquessa.

Finally, Elisa concluded that what was happening to her with the Count was somewhat like the fable of the young shepherd boy who cried Wolf! To excite the villagers feelings so much that when a wolf did eventually appear no-one would come to his aid. Elisa´s conclusion was that the young Count was simply too scared to respond to her advances for fear of further mockery. She decided then, that it was imperative to offer him proof of her absolute sincerity.

Elisa was feeling that to promise, encourage or to give hope in such an oblique and confusing way, might leave him the impression that, later, she could deny ever having such advances. Her love, or rather, the apparition, the appearance of love that she was creating and feeding in his soul, was so subtle and vaporous, that it could slip into the bosom of the most hardened, sometimes awakening a great storm and leave neither trace nor track of it´s coming. It was disappearing like a shadow. It was illusory, as a ghost, but had the force of a giant to destroy hearts. However, the idea of offering incontrovertible proof was causuing her considerable trauma. Her pride was resisting, given that her customary behaviour was so much the reverse of offering humble frankness. Still, neither this love apparition nor her true love, even if born of jealousy and envy, appeared to be having any effect on the young Count at all. She was still thinking that he, already punished by false love, was mistaking her true love for the same without allowing for the slightest doubt. Elisa was longing to steal back the Count´s heart from Beatriz, and she would pay whatever the price.

In this state of mind, Elisa was determined to do everything in her power to assure herself the victory. But, in the middle of these most violent passions, prudence was still not leaving her. she was calculating in a state of calm serenity. She calculated then, in this situation, that to surrender without a fight would be the ultimate defeat. That it would follow that the Count would return to Beatriz concealing a passing infidelity or asking forgiveness for his fault. Just to think of this set Elisa trembling with spite.

She had been thinking about what would happen to him if left to Beatriz, or her husband, or her lover. She could not allow her beloved to suffer in any of those imaginable ways. The Marquessa, so free until then, had decided to subject herself to the mastery of that man. She was rich. In spite of her vain flirtation, her reputation had survived without blemish. She belonged to a family no less illustrious than the Count. She was, for the Count, an excellent match. Why should the two of them not marry? It was the only way that Elisa had of triumphing over Beatriz.

Elisa had spent much time pondering the most appropriate way to advance her ambitions. Finally, she invited to her house an ageing uncle whose reputation for discretion had always inspired the greatest confidence and gave him a full confession of her romance with the Count of Alhedin. She recounted that her love was serious. She declared that, whilst normally accustomed to playing with love, she was now the seduced, the captive, the besotted. She begged her prudent uncle to meet the mother of the Condesito and that, should circumstances seemed appropriate, he should indicate that he was aware that the Marquessa was favourable to the idea, and, consequently, he was proposing an excellent marriage for the Contessa´s son.

Naturally, Elisa´s uncle completed this delicate task with consumate discretion and skill, managing completely to maintain the vital element of secrecy. The widow, the Contessa Alhedin found that her son could not dream of a better wedding, and immediately became patron in the matter on behalf of the Marquessa whose obvious comitment towards the Count she found most flattering.

Following the uncle´s approach, the Countess of Alhedin had a long talk with her son and spoke eloquently of the proposed wedding bringing a great blessing on her house, as a fortuitous event that would merit her entire approval. In her efforts to persuade him she tried so hard to disentangle him from the romantic intrigues in which he had been placing himself. She stressed the virtues and pleasures of a settled home and repeated what at other times had been obvious, that now was the time when he should be considering his future and beginning a family of his own. That he would aquire for himself a greater dignity and respect and could use his life and the great abilities which God had given him for business which could only enhance the prominence of his name, his personal wealth and his status within his homeland.

The Condesito denied once again to his mother that he had any relationship with Doña Beatriz, and confessed to her that the Marquessa had been most enchanting. but he added that her unsolicited flirtation had cured him of the beginnings of love, and that so radically had it cured him that it would now be impossible for him to love the Marquessa and consequently to marry her, even though he knew that she was most worthy to take his name and to be his partner for the rest of his life.

Finally, after intense debate the sole result was that the sad news had to be returned to the source of the petition, Elisa. The count could only hope that the effect of his refusal would be dissipated by having to return through the two intermediaries. First by the Contessa speaking to Elisa´s uncle and second by her uncle conveying the news to Elisa. But it was always going to be like a difficult lesson learned or an apparent punishment for her flirtatious nature. As one might say, the bird coming home to roost.

When the news finally reached Elisa the outcome was, perhaps, predictable. Her pride, offended and humiliated in the most extreme way, was demanding revenge from the very depths of her soul. She had never foreseen, not in her blackest and most desperate dreams, that any man could possibly resist her powerful charm and the magic of her beguiling ways. That this man had so enamoured her when it was always she who had drawn the love of all the men, and that she had finally been driven to the point of taking the initiative and begging for his hand, only to receive from him the most insolent and pitiless refusal.

The cause of all this evil was, of course Doña Beatriz. It was she, thought Elisa, who had bewitched the Count. At her hand Elisa had felt for the first time the flaming arrow of rejection and caused her to feel she had been treated with absloute disdain. The rage took possession of her soul It drove from her any generous feeling, any scruple, any consideration that may be opposed to revenge. With such offense, nothing could keep her from vengeance. She did not blush to think of the most vile retribution and to determine the means she would use to take her utmost revenge.

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