“How far is Don Ramón’s hacienda from Sayula?” she asked.
“Near! About an hour in a boat. He is there now. And at the beginning of the month I am going with my division to Guadalajara: now there is a new Governor. So I shall be quite near too.”
“That will be nice,” she said.
“You think so?” he asked quickly.
“Yes,” she said, on her guard, looking at him slowly. “I should be sorry to lose touch with Don Ramón and you.”
He had a little tension on his brow, haughty, unwilling, conceited, and at the same time, yearning and desirous.
“You like Don Ramón very much?” he said. “You want to know him more?”
There was a peculiar anxiety in his voice.
“Yes,” she said. “One knows so few people in the world nowadays, that one can respect—and fear a little. I am a little afraid of Don Ramón: and I have the greatest respect for him—” she ended on a hot note of sincerity.
“It is good!” he said. “It is very good. You may respect him more than any other man in the world.”