"His daughter spoke to me of a black coffer which was discovered in his room, and by which Don Alfonso seemed to set great store," said Don Gregorio; "do you know what has become of it?"
"All his effects are in the hands of Major Asneiros, who had charge of the examination of his papers," replied Don Roderigo.
"Asneiros has behaved like a brute," said Don Fausto.
"The Señor Asneiros has small sympathy for traitors," replied Don Roderigo.
Don Gregorio and Don Fausto returned to the house of the latter gentleman but little pleased with the result of their interview. In the ante-sala they found Doña Josefina with Magdalen and Elisa Puyrredon; to whom they recounted the ill-success of their errand.
"It is a barbarity," said Elisa Puyrredon. "Where are we going to stop? Wait till my brother comes back. I cannot understand it at all."
"Nor I," said Doña Josefina. "This Asneiros has not come to see me for a month, why do you not go to see him, Fausto? He will tell you more than Don Roderigo. Magdalen says it is all owing to him that her father was arrested, and he was so great a friend of Don Alfonso."
As Doña Josefina said this she looked sharply at Magdalen, who flushed scarlet, and said:
"I do not think the Señor Asneiros was ever a friend to papa, he was a spy."
"I know he did not go to the quinta so often to see Don Alfonso," said Doña Josefina.