He broke off, turning to Estella, who was moving towards the door.
‘I was especially instructed,’ he said quickly to her, ‘to ask you not to leave us. You were, I believe, at school with my nieces in England, and when my business, which is of the briefest, is concluded, I have messages to deliver to you from Mary and Amy Mainwaring.’
Estella smiled a little and resumed her seat. Then the stranger turned to Conyngham.
‘The General told me,’ he went on in his cold voice, without a gleam of geniality or even of life in his eyes, ‘that if I followed the servant to the drawing-room I should find here an English aide-de-camp who is fully in his confidence, and upon whose good-nature and assistance I could rely.’
‘I am for the time General Vincente’s aide-de-camp, and I am an Englishman,’ answered Conyngham.
The stranger bowed.
‘I did not explain my business to General Vincente,’ said he, ‘who asked me to wait until he came, and then tell the story to you both at one time. In the meantime I was to introduce myself to you.’
Conyngham waited in silence.
‘My name is Sir John Pleydell,’ said the stranger quietly.