“I am resolved.”
“For my part, then, although the business is dangerous and serious—very serious—I am ready to aid you in all things and for all things.”
“Can I rely upon you?”
“To the death.”
CHAPTER XIX
A TERRIBLE BATTLE-STRATEGY
The opening of hostilities could not long be delayed. When the hour of dinner arrived, after coming to an agreement with Pinzon regarding the plan to be pursued, the first condition of which was that the friends should pretend not to know each other, Pepe Rey went to the dining-room. There he found his aunt, who had just returned from the cathedral where she had spent the morning as was her habit. She was alone, and appeared to be greatly preoccupied. The engineer observed that on that pale and marble-like countenance, not without a certain beauty, there rested a mysterious shadow. When she looked up it recovered its sinister calmness, but she looked up seldom, and after a rapid examination of her nephew’s countenance, that of the amiable lady would again take on its studied gloom.
They awaited dinner in silence. They did not wait for Don Cayetano, for he had gone to Mundogrande. When they sat down to table Doña Perfecta said:
“And that fine soldier whom the Government has sent us, is he not coming to dinner?”