The Adventurers by Gustave Aimard

What she heard, but still more what she saw, necessarily powerfully interested Dona Rosario. In a vast room, dimly lighted by one of those yellow candles which the Chilians call _velas de cebo_, fastened to the wall by means of a ring, a woman, still young, and very handsome, attired in a riding dress of great richness, was seated on an ebony chair, covered with Cordova leather. With her right hand she played with a gold headed whip, and was speaking in an animated tone to a man who stood respectfully before her, hat in hand. This man, as well as Dona Rosario could make out, was the same who had carried her into the _cuarto_. The woman, whom Dona Rosario did not recollect ever to have seen, was no other than Dona Maria, the shameless courtesan, who, under the name of the Linda, enjoyed such a scandalous celebrity.

Dona Maria's position threw the light of the candle full upon her face, and gave Dona Rosario an opportunity of distinguishing her features. She contemplated them with deep interest, for she felt instinctively that this woman was the enemy who, from her birth, had fatally followed her steps. She imagined that a decisive conference between her and the unknown was about to take place, and that in a few minutes her fate would be made known to her. And yet, at the aspect of this woman, whose bent brows, clear and haughty look, coldly compressed lips, and cruel words, revealed with the hatred which devoured her, it was neither a feeling of terror, nor a feeling of hatred, that the young girl experienced. Without knowing why, a sadness and an undefined pity for the very woman who was giving orders that made her shudder, took possession of her.