[CHAPTER VII.]
THE COUGARS.
Don Valentine Cardoso's conversation with Don Blas Salazar was prolonged far into the night. Doña Concha had retired to her apartments.
"Thanks, Blas, my friend," Don Valentine said in conclusion; "that Don Torribio Carvajal never pleased either my daughter or myself. His mysterious ways and his look repulse affection and inspire distrust."
"What do you intend doing?" the capataz asked.
"I am greatly embarrassed; how can I close my doors against him; what pretext should I have?"
"Good gracious!" Blas said; "Perhaps we are alarming ourselves too soon. This gentleman is doubtless no more or less than a lover. Doña Concha is of the age to be beloved, and her beauty attracts Don Torribio. You do not like him as son-in-law, so all right; but love, they say, is a strange thing, and some day or other—"
"I have designs for my daughter."
"That is different. By the way, may not this mysterious caballero be a secret agent of General Oribe, who is watching Carmen?"