"Very good, señor," she answered, "I am ready to obey you."
"Please, madam, carefully do bear in mind the tenour of the order I have communicated to you, and which I am compelled to request back. Everybody, you understand, madam," he said, laying a marked stress on the word, "must be ignorant how doña Dolores has left the convent: this recommendation is of the highest importance."
"I will not forget it, señor."
"You are at liberty to say that she has escaped. Now, madam, be kind enough to warn doña Dolores."
The superior left don Diego in her cell, and went herself to fetch doña Dolores. So soon as he was alone, the young man tore into impalpable fragments the order he had shown the superior, and threw them into the brasero, when the fire immediately consumed them.
"I am not at all desirous," don Diego said as he watched them burning, "that the governor should perceive one day the perfection with which I imitate his signature, for it might cause him to feel jealous;" and he smiled with an air of mockery.
The superior was not absent more than a quarter of an hour.
"Here is doña Dolores de la Cruz," said the abbess; "I have the honour of delivering her into your hands."
"Very good, madam; I hope soon to prove to you that his Excellency knows how, when the opportunity offers, worthily to reward those persons who obey him without hesitation."
The mother superior bowed humbly, and raised her eyes to Heaven.