"You are an admirable actor, Señor," pursued the abbess; "your hair does not at all come out from under your peruke; I only wished to tease you a little, that is all. Now, drink, eat, and do not worry yourself about anything."
The collation was then attacked by the four persons, between whom the ice was now broken, and who talked gaily to each other. The abbess especially, young and merry, was charmed at this trick she was playing on the revolutionary authorities of Tucuman, in trying to carry away from them two persons to whom they seemed to attach so much importance.
"Now," said she, when the repast was finished, "let us talk seriously."
"Talk seriously—I should like nothing better," pursued the painter; "apropos of that, I shall permit myself to recall the phrase that you have yourself uttered—time presses."
"That is true; you are no doubt astonished to see me—the superior of a house which is almost a convent onto whom has been confided the care of two prisoners of importance—enter into a plot, the design of which is to permit them to escape."
"Indeed," murmured the painter, bowing; "that does appear rather strange to me."
"I have several motives for it, and your astonishment will cease when you know that I am a Spaniard, and have no sympathy with the revolution made by the inhabitants of this country, to drive my fellow countrymen out of it, to whom it belongs by every divine and human law."
"That appears to me logical enough."
"Moreover, in my opinion, a convent is not—and cannot, under any pretext, be metamorphosed into a prison. Again, women ought to be always placed out of the region of politics, and be left free to act in their own fashion. In fact, to sum up, the Marchioness de Castelmelhor is an old friend of my family; I love her daughter as a sister, and I wish to save them at all hazards, even if my life is paid for theirs."
The two ladies threw themselves into the arms of the abbess, loading her with caresses and thanks.