"Good gracious, I know not how to explain it to you; it is so absurd, that I really dare not—"
"Pray speak, Caballero; although I am only an illiterate adventurer, I may possibly manage to understand you."
"The truth is, I shall hurt your feelings."
"Not the least in the world: are you not my guest? a guest is sent by heaven, that is to say, is sacred."
Don Stefano hesitated.
"Well," Don Miguel said, with a laugh, "I will have breakfast served; perhaps that will undo your tongue."
"That is the embarrassing point!" the Mexican exclaimed, quickly, with an accent of chagrin; "the fact is, that, in spite of my great desire to be agreeable to you, I cannot accept your kind invitation."
The young man frowned. "Ah, ah!" he said, fixing a suspicious glance on the speaker, "why so?"
"That is the very thing I dare not confess to you."
"You can, Caballero; have I not told you that you had the right to say anything?"