"I thought you said he went to the quinta after the fight at the Pasa Chico."
"He did, but the next day he went outside, and has never been back. We expected to hear of him from Don Fausto, but no one knows where he has gone."
"Oh, that is nothing! he is always disappearing like that, but he always turns up again. The old game, I suppose, some pair of shining black eyes."
"But it is strange now when all the comandantes are in the city, and he is in command of a regiment."
"Ah, Carlos, you don't understand those things; politics are everything to you, and if you see a pair of bright eyes you don't even notice what colour they are. When my uncle Gregorio sees a pair which smile on him he forgets everything. He always was that way, so they tell me."
"And then, after looking at himself in those eyes for a month or so, he gets tired of them, and goes away, and never thinks of them any more," said Evaña. "Frankly, I cannot understand a man like that, yet I believe there are such men."
"Of them there are many, but you are not one of them, Carlos, therefore you cannot understand my uncle. If you ever love it will be for all your life; you are a tyrant to every one else, but you would be a slave to a woman you loved."
"Therefore I had better never love," replied Evaña; "man was not made to be slave to any, but to be lord over the whole earth."
"But not lord over his own heart, Carlos, that is in no man's power. Proud as you are, your time will come."
"Let me read you some more of the 'Estrella del Sur,'" said Evaña hastily.