“Not quite yet.”
“Never mind. I’ll make it more plain by-and-by. Only promise me that you’ll do—”
“Dearest Ysabelita! I’d do anything for you.”
“And Don Florencio. I thought that would secure your consent. Well, mil mil gracias! But what a game of cross-purposes we’ll be playing; I for you, and you for me, and neither for ourselves! Let us hope we may both win.”
By this the carriage had stopped in front of the Casa Valverde to set down Doña Luisa. The Countess alighted also, ordering the horses home. It was but a step to her own house, and she could walk it. For she had something more to say which required saying there and then. Passing on into the patio, far enough to be beyond earshot of the “cochero,” and there stopping, she resumed the dialogue at the point where she had left off.
“We must set to work at once,” she said; “this very day, if opportunity offer. Perhaps in the procession—”
“Oh! Ysabel?” interrupted the other. “How I dislike the thought of this procession—making merry as it were, and he in a prison! And we must pass it too—its very doors! I’m sure I shall feel like springing out of the carriage and rushing inside to see him.”
“That would be just the way to ensure your not seeing him—perhaps, never more. The very opposite is what you must do, or you’ll spoil all my plans. But I’ll instruct you better before we start out.”
“You insist, then, on our going?”
“Of course, yes; for the very reason—the very purpose we’ve been speaking of. That’s just why I ask you to take me with you. It will never do to offend his High Mightiness, angry as we may be with him. I’m now sorry at having shown temper; but how could I help it, hearing Ruperto called a robber? However, that may be all for the best. So, upstairs; turn out your guarda-roba, and your jewel case; array yourself in your richest apparel, and be in readiness for the gilded coach when it comes round. Carramba!” she added after drawing out her jewelled watch,—one of Losada’s best—and glancing at its dial, “we haven’t a moment to spare, I must be off to my toilet too.”