"Excellency," the peon answered respectfully, "the caballeros will have the honour of waiting on you. They are following me."
"Very good. Put a bottle of Catalonian refino and glasses on the table. I know from experience that these gentry have no partiality for pure water."
After this new jest the general rolled a papelito, lighted it, and waited. Within five minutes the sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor; the door opened, and two men appeared.
"It is not he!" Doña Angela murmured in a low voice, for her eyes were anxiously fixed on the door.
The two men were Valentine and Don Cornelio.
[CHAPTER XI.]
A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION.
We have mentioned in a previous chapter the object for which Valentine presented himself in his friend's place. He wished to try and discover for what reason Doña Angela desired so ardently to see Louis again. As for Don Cornelio, he was intimately persuaded that his personal merits had done it all, and that the young lady's sole wish was to have another interview with himself.
On the other hand, the hunter, warned by Curumilla, was not sorry to see the man with whom he had been indirectly connected at another period of his life—a connection which might at any moment become more intimate, owing to the general's new position and Don Louis' projects.