And after the customary compliments he retired.
"The capataz of San Julian, Don Blas Salazar wishes to speak with Señor Don Valentine Cardoso on important business."
"Let him come in," Don Valentine said to the servant who had announced the capataz in so lengthy a fashion. "Conchita, come and sit by my side on this sofa."
Don Torribio was extremely agitated when he left the house; he turned round and darted a viper glance at the windows of the drawing room, across which Doña Concha's light shadow flitted.
"Proud girl," he said in a hollow and terrible voice, "I shall punish you for your disdain."
Then, wrapping himself in his cloak, he went at a rapid pace to a house situated a short distance off, where he generally lived when at Carmen. He knocked twice; the gate opened and closed after him.
Twenty minutes later the gate opened again to let two horsemen pass out.
"Master, where are we going?" one asked.
"To the tree of Gualichu," the other replied; and added in a whisper, "to seek vengeance."
The two horsemen entered the darkness, and the furious gallop of their horses was soon lost in the silence of night.