"As you please, señor. Now permit me to take leave of you and this honourable caballero, your friend."
"Adieu, Zapote. A happy journey."
The lepero joyfully took to his road again.
"Señor," said Don Estevan, as soon as the latter had gone, "in a short time we shall reach the rancho (farmhouse) I inhabit with my mother; it would glad me to offer you shelter for the night."
"Thanks for your courtesy, which I gratefully accept. Is the rancho far from Las Norias?"
"Hardly a league. Were it daylight, you would be able to see from hence the tall walls of the hacienda. Permit me to be your guide on the road to my poor dwelling."
The cavaliers then bent to the left, entering a broad path lined with aloes. Very soon the barking of several watchdogs, and two or three specks of light which twinkled through the darkness, apprised them that it would not be long before they reached the end of their tedious journey. In fact, after riding some ten minutes longer, they found themselves in front of a house, small, but apparently comfortable, under the zaguán (veranda) of which several persons, provided with torches, seemed to be expecting their arrival.
They stopped before the porch, dismounted, gave their horses to a peon, who led them away, and entered the dwelling, Don Estevan preceding his guest in order to do the honours of his house.
They found themselves in a chamber of good dimensions, furnished with sundry chairs, a few armchairs, and a massive table, on which the cloth was laid for several persons. The whitewashed walls of the room were adorned with prints, frightfully coloured, representing the four seasons, the five quarters of the globe, &c.
A woman, no longer young, dressed with a certain degree of refinement, and whose features, although marked by age, still preserved traces of great beauty, stood in the middle of the room.