"Listen to me then: I shall be the more brief, because when the persons I am expecting arrive, I shall give you more detailed instructions."
"Very good, go on."
"Two persons are going to join us here, a young man, and a young lady; the latter is doña Dolores de la Cruz, daughter of the owner of the hacienda del Arenal: she is sixteen years of age, and very beautiful; she is a gentle, pure, and simple girl."
"Very good, but that does not concern me, for you know I trouble myself but slightly about squaws."
"That is true, so I will not dwell on the point: doña Dolores is betrothed to don Ludovic, who will marry her immediately."
"Much good may it do him; and who is don Ludovic? Some Mexican, I suppose, stupid and proud, who prances like a canon's mule."
"In that you are mistaken; don Ludovic is her cousin, Count Ludovic de la Saulay, belonging to the highest nobility in France."
"Ah, ah! He is the Frenchman in question?"
"Yes: he has come expressly from France to contract with his cousin this union which has long been arranged between the two families. Count Ludovic is a most agreeable gentleman, rich, kind, amiable, well educated, and obliging: in short, an excellent fellow, in whom I take the most sincere interest, and I wish you to attach yourself to him."
"If he is as you say, all right; before two days we shall be the best friends in the world."