"And I, too. But supposing one of them were to come to Hermosillo?"
"That is peremptorily forbidden them. They will be cautious not to disobey the order they have received."
"Ah!" she said with a pout.
At the same moment, a door was thrown open with a crash; and a servant announced in a loud and perfectly distinct voice,—
"His Excellency the Count Louis de Prébois. His Excellency Don Cornelio Mendoza."
If the count purposed to produce an effect, his object was completely attained. His sudden entrance was a regular tableau, and caused a general emotion, whose immense extent it was certainly impossible for him to calculate.
All the ladies had risen, and, grouped round the general, examined with a curious and timid eye the chief of the adventurers.
The count, whose splendid ranchero costume, which he wore with inimitable grace, added to the fascinating charm spread over his whole person, walked a few steps with a smile, bowed around with a gesture full of elegance, and waited. The general had suddenly turned of a livid pallor.
The news of the count's arrival, spreading through the other rooms with incomprehensible rapidity, suddenly stopped the dancing and gambling; all the guests quitted the other rooms, and proceeded toward the one in which the count was said to be.
Still, each second that elapsed added to the embarrassment of the position; the general felt it, and sought in vain a mode of escape. Don Louis understood, or rather guessed, the general's perplexity; hence, advancing two paces, he said with exquisite politeness,—