"I am sure then I might read that," said Dolores. "I should so much like to know what the young ladies in England are like. Are they at all like us, Mr Gordon?"
As the lieutenant looked at the fair questioner, he thought that if they were all like her England would be a very Eden to live in, but he answered:
"There are of all kinds there, bad and good, as everywhere else, but they do not dress with so much taste as you do, and when they walk in the open air they wear hats with feathers in them instead of 'mantillas'; but sometimes they put on most horrible bonnets, which hide their faces, so that one cannot see what they are like."
"How absurd!" said Dolores. "But are they pretty?"
"Oh yes! There are more pretty girls there than in any other country in the world."
At this Doña Constancia and Dolores both laughed very heartily.
"You say that with enthusiasm, Mr Gordon," said Doña Constancia.
"I suppose he has good reasons for being enthusiastic," said Dolores. "Does not your heart beat quicker when you think of them, Mr Gordon?"
"Hardly," replied the lieutenant; "for in spite of all your kindness to me it reminds me that I am a prisoner of war."
"Do not think of that, you will not be a prisoner always," said Doña Constancia. "You will be able to go back some day and see the pretty English girls you think so much of."