"Pray do so, Dolores."
"Well, I should like you to tell me the urgent motive which induced you to leave Veracruz suddenly, and take this journey with me, more especially, when usually you never take anyone with you on your excursions."
"The motive is very simple, my child, serious interests claim my presence at Mexico, where I must be as soon as possible. On the other hand, the political horizon is daily growing darker, and I reflected that a residence at our Hacienda del Arenal might become ere long, dangerous for our family. I therefore have resolved that, after leaving you in Puebla with our relation don Luis de Pezal, whose god-daughter you are, and who loves you dearly, to push on to Arenal, where I shall take up your brother Melchior, and convey you to the capital, where it will be easy for us to find effectual protection, in the event, unhappily too easy to foresee, of the constituted power being suddenly overthrown and that of Veracruz substituted for it."
"And you have no other motive but that, papa?" the young lady said, leaning forward, with a slight smile.
"What other motive could I have but what I have just told you, my dear Dolores?"
"You see I do not know, papa, since I ask you."
"You are a curious niña," he continued laughingly, shaking his finger at her, "you would like to make me confess my secret."
"Then you have a secret, papa?"
"That is possible; but for the present you must be satisfied with knowing so much, for I shall not tell it to you."
"Really, dear papa?"