‘He makes no friend who never made a foe.’
Conyngham remembered the name of Pleydell well enough, and glanced sharply at Estella, recollecting that the General received the ‘Times’ from London. Before he had time to make an answer, and indeed he had none ready, the General came into the room.
‘Ah!’ said Vincente in his sociable manner, ‘I see you know each other already—so an introduction is superfluous. And now we will have Sir John’s story. Be seated, my dear sir. But first—a little refreshment. It is a dusty day—a lemonade?’
Sir John declined, his manner strikingly cold and reserved beside the genial empressement of General Vincente. In truth the two men seemed to belong to opposite poles—the one of cold and the other of heat. Sir John had the chill air of one who had mixed among his fellow men only to see their evil side; for the world is a cold place to those that look on it with a chilling glance. General Vincente, on the other hand, whose life had been passed in strife and warfare, seemed ready to welcome all comers as friends and to hold out the hand of good-fellowship to rich and poor alike.
Conyngham shrugged his shoulders with a queer smile. Here was a quandary requiring a quicker brain than his. He did not even attempt to seek a solution to his difficulties, and the only thought in his mind was a characteristic determination to face them courageously. He drew forward a chair for Sir John Pleydell, his heart stirred with that sense of exhilaration which comes to some in moments of peril.
‘I will not detain you long,’ began the new-comer, with an air slightly suggestive of the law court, ‘but there are certain details which I am afraid I must inflict upon you, in order that you may fully understand my actions.’
The remark was addressed to General Vincente, although the speaker appeared to be demanding Conyngham’s attention in the first instance. The learned gentlemen of the Bar thus often address the jury through the ears of the judge.
General Vincente had seated himself at the table and was drawing his scented pocket-handkerchief across his moustache reflectively. He was not, it was obvious, keenly interested, although desirous of showing every politeness to the stranger. In truth, such Englishmen as brought their affairs to Spain at this time were not as a rule highly desirable persons or a credit to their country. Estella was sitting near the window, rather behind her father, and Conyngham stood by the fireplace, facing them all.
‘You perhaps know something of our English politics,’ continued Sir John Pleydell, and the General making a little gesture indicative of a limited but sufficient knowledge, went on to say—‘of the Chartists more particularly?’
The General bowed. Estella glanced at Conyngham, who was smiling.